Warning long story but it helps describe the situation.

I have lurked on here for a while and have gotten some good tips, Thanks all.

Now for the problem, I have a 03 Dodge 2500 4x4, I had BFG's on the truck then took them back off after about 5K miles and stored them (someone was kind enough to break into my storage and relieve me of my BFG tires anyway I went back to the stock Mich. tires and noticed my truck needed an alignment so I took it to a shop to get it aligned. After about an hour I get a call from them saying they cannot align the truck that the front bearings are bad and that it was $1300 and change to fix it, I told them to leave it alone and I would pick it up.

So I take the truck to Dodge and they call me back and say well theres more the ball joints are shot and need replaced and gave me a quote of $2500 for ball joints, bearings, tie rods and the list goes on. At this time Im thinking the truck has 50K on it and I dont abuse the truck so I tell them just leave it alone and I will pick it up, I go to pick up the truck and start talking to the service manager and he says well there is nothing wrong with the bearings according to the paper work so I ask why so much then so he calls the service guy up and he says well they (alignment shop) told you the bearing where bad so I figured I would change them even though they where good anyway . At this point I just want my truck out of there.

I get the truck home, I buy all the tools, I get all the parts, I tear into it. Everything is going just great until I get to the bearing removal, I loosen the bolts and leave about a 1/4" gap and try hammering on them to move the bearing off, nothing. Now I try the steering trick again nothing. I have them soaking in Seafoam now and am thinking of renting a port-a-power to get them off, has anyone ran into them being on so tight that the steering trick could not get them to come off? and if so what trick could you give someone to help get the bearings off.

 

Are the bearings good or bad? If these are the same as the second gen I have put heat on the knuckle flange and use a big hammer on a socket and Ext on the bolts also driving a wedge between the flange and the bearing (good chance you will ruin the bearing). Works, sometimes a combo of all the above.

When you re-install the bearings put anti seize or silicone on the surface that slides into the knuckle this will save you grief next time, also take a good look at your U-Joints while you are there

 

50K?.....isn't it still under warranty?

 

You would think so but no Dodge does not cover the ball joints under warranty, the dodge dealership that I took it to said it was until it was there then they said no, thats why I took it out of their shop.

The bearings are still good, its just the ball joints and tie rods that need to be replaced and I will be inspecting the u-joints while I am at it, more than likely I will just replace them while I am there just so I dont have to worry about them as well.

I seen where someone showed a picture on here of using a 2 ton bottle jack so I picked one up (heck $13 at sears) so I will give that a try and see if it works if not then I will just rent a portapower and be done with it.

 

I've heard of dealers replacing worn ball joints under warranty......never have done it myself.....might try another dealer.

 

I just did carli uppers & moog lowers, new axle ujoints... getting the hubs off was easy for me, I used an 18mm deep socket with a super shorty 1/2 drive extention (2" IIRC) and did the power steering assist trick, worked awesome, both hubs came off w/o a hitch. just had to nudge both sides a little at a time, once it was broken loose, it came out easy.

 

Put a 3 point puller on the hub, if it doesn't come off after one try, move it to a different spot. Just removed it on my bros 06 two nights ago. It was tough to get off but a puller took care of it. Not a huge fan of the power steering method, pretty hard on things, they make pullers for doing things like this....

 

Well I finally got it off, I looked at how someone else was using a 2 ton bottle jack, that wasnt doing it all the way it would get me a very small crack but that was it so I went and got a second one and put it on as well so between using the sockets press up against the yoke of the axle and two jacks and a BFH I was able to slowly work it off, that thing was extremly coated with rust in there, the bearing is fine and I coated the crap out of it with anti-sieze. The U-joint is shot but I cannot get them for about a week so I put the new ball joints in and got it all back together. The truck is only used for camping so there is no problem with it setting there.

 

lost one while you have the hubs apart pull the abs sensor out and blast some grease in the hole where the sensor came out of.

u joints be ready for another battle! i did mine and just about

 

Well they are done luckily I got the passenger side to come off easier, or maybe I just figured out how to hit it right with a hammer. The axle did not want to go back in as easy as the drivers side did, I dont know why it didnt want to but its in. It took me 9 hours from start to finish to get both sides done. I will still need to do the U-joints but that will have to wait a week or so. Man I hope I dont have to do that again anytime soon.

 

They do not recomend using a puller on the hubs. If you pull the hub apart and it is just pressed together they say it is ruined. I used the power steering method and do not see where it is hard on anything. You can pop the hub off using less effort than to dry steer it on pavement.
Jim O

 

http://forum.neow.net/index.php?s=&s...post&p=1230053

 

When I did my Dynatrac hub conversion last month I bought a cheap puller at harbor freight. It pulled them off like butter. Less than 20 bucks. The ball joints are another issue
I replaced mine with heavy duty greasable ones. I bought a kit for 169 dollars to remove them. It also worked great and I just used my air racket to power the puller.

 

I eliminated a lot of these problems too with my EMS kit...

 

Could you tell me what all is involved with them? are they the kind that used the plastic (or what ever it was) injected in to hold the cups in place rather than the clips. I dont see clips on mine on the end of the cups. My father in law years ago had a chevy with them on the rear drive line like that and I took it in to have them change them and it looked like they heated it to press them out but not sure if that is the case or if they did something else.

I am going to have to tear the front cover off of the axle and check the seal, I am worried where the passenger side axle did not want to go back in as easy as the drivers side did, it when to within 3/4 of and inch and then it took some prying to get it to go in and I dont know why so I want to pull the cover and inspect the seal before I drive it to make sure I did not damage it.