I must admit that I have had little trouble with my '09 4WD 3500 6.7, but as she is fast approaching the 100K mark I am starting to think that the front wheel bearings must be getting pretty long in the tooth.
Any advice out there on the best procedure to remove and replace the 4WD bearing hubs?

 

I've got 80k on mine. I'll be watching to see what advice you get. I saw some threads where people have used Ford parts to eliminate the unit bearing & gain manual hubs. But that was for 2nd gens. I have not seen one on doing it on 3rd gens though

 

I have 137K miles on my 2007. I had to have all the ball joints, tie rod ends, acle u-joints, etc replaced at 125K. They said the bearings were still in good shape. I guess it's according to how you use the truck. The ones in my 2000 were replaced at 97K under warranty and now I have 242K on it. Front end shop said they are still good.

 

Dynatrac,Spyntec and Yukon offer freespin conversions for 3rd gens.

 

Easiest way I have found to replace them. Safety first secure truck on jack stands, with both wheels off the ground. Remove tires, caliper, caliper bracket and rotor. Remove the center nut on axle shaft. To get to the four bolts that hold the bearing in you may have to turn the wheel to get more room.

Remove one top bolt and one bottom bolt completely, then the other two back them out half way. Put an extension on your socket that fits the bolt head, that is long enough to make contact with the knuckle when you turn the wheel. Put socket with extension on one bolt get in truck start turn steering wheel full lock which ever direction to make socket come in contact with knuckle. It will push on the bolt which will push bearing out. Do this on each of the two bolts if need be back bolts out farther and do it again to get bearing all the way out. (I hope that makes sense)

Going back together I will take some emory cloth and clean the area in the knuckle that the bearing seats against and I always use blue loctite on the bolts into the bearing.

 

Those are all really expensive though. That's why I'm curious about using factory ford parts like the 2nD gen guys can.

 

Thanks Hillbilly66 for R&R procedure. Hope I don't need it too soon.

 

Grease those wheel bearing and hub assemblies and you will not have to replace them. You can grease them through the abs hole. It only takes about 5 minutes to grease them when you are doing a brake job. I use a "wheel bearing greaser" that is available on ebay. It comes with instructions and is very easy to use.

 

You're welcome. Hope you don't need to replace them anytime soon either.

 

The free spin kits are expensive but you never have to buy the Hub bearing assembly again which is also expensive. I have a kit from EMS off Road and love it.

 

I just did both sides a month ago. Easy if the bolts don't give you trouble. First put a jack under the axle but do not put on stands. Remove the pin and use the 1 11/16 socket and a breaker bar to break the large but free. Once both sides are broke then put it up on stands. Remove calipers, the break the four bolts loose, then use a rubber mallet and pry bar to get the hub free. I would suggest if you can its a good time to press out the u joints and replace them.

If your hub cap doesn't come off then yes you will have to put it up on stands to get the big nut off.