Ive been dealing with a bad wheel bearing , rt front in my 4x4. After much trouble it seems to be solved. I looked into dynatrac but they are alittle pricy to me. The oem stuff is also pricey for what you get. I was quoted 360 for one hub (unit bearing) , others on here said 425 to 550 for one unit bearing.

Turns out that emsoffroad now offers a lower cost alternative . It is a hub/bearing conversion to run lock outs. Comes with rotors too, (I smoked a rotor cause of the bad unit bearing) figure thats another 65-100 per rotor too.

Anyways for about 1000 or in some cases alittle less or a little more you can put lock out hubs on, new rotors, and easily serviced wheel bearings (that can be bought for about 40$ if need be)

It basically the same price as replacing the oem stuff, maybe even cheaper, and you get the benefits. They don t have all years worked out yet apparently, so if your interested youll have to talk to them.

 

Do you have the web site or e-mail address?

 

yeah, we address please, I am 3rd gen, but hopefully they have them also...

 

Looks like: http://www.emsoffroad.com/

 

Thanks man!!

 

they don't have it on their website yet because they haven't officially released it, waiting on some parts to come in. just talked to eric there, seemed like a good guy, knew his stuff and was very friendly. he's another gearhead/wheeler/fabricator. the intro price will be under 1k, comes with all new parts....stub axle, spindles, hub/rotor, bearings and a few other odds and ends. it changes the wheel mating surface to about 1/2" wider overall and the base kit does not get rid of the CAD, that is an upgrade that he's working on right now and should be available shortly after. he's also working on the upgrade for ABS trucks, currently it's for non-ABS only. also getting 35 spline upgrades ready to go.

so far seems like a good deal, i'm very interested to see how it turns out, I've been watching the dynatrac stuff and worrying about the 200k miles on my hubs wondering when they're going to let go and thinking about 1800-2k for dyna or ~800-1000 for factory stuff...

 

My stuff is on its way, Ill let you know how it goes. They seem to be working hard on getting all the small things worked out, like abs, year differences etc.....


oh you mentioned 200k miles.....mine is at 203.

 

Let me know how you like it!

 

1320, My local dodge dealer sells me that whole hub assembly that I have replaced on both sides of my truck for about 230 bucks. You are getting ripped from who ever gave you those prices. There is no way I would change all that crap out unless I knew for a fact I could get better braking power, because I chew up the best pads made by anyone. I am trying to figure out what to do now. I recently replaced both front calipers & pads with severe duty pads from NAPA. The pads & calipers are rebuilds by United Parts. I am going to put my Ceramix pads back on. they last longer anyway.

 

thats odd, in another thread on here, I posted the 360 $ proce and several other people posted that they paid even more..............?

Even at 230 plus a rotor I still wouldn t replace them with oem sealed unserviceable unit bearing. The lock out hub conversion lets me use a low cost timken wheel bearing that isn t even hard to get to, so if in the future (another 100k miles) I need another it wont be sidelined for 2 1/2 weeks looking for the correct unit bearing.

Even at the 230 price thats 500 for both sides plus rotors....thats 650-700 atlleast for both sides....its only alittle further to lock out hubs, 1 maybe 2 more mpg, and 2LO.....which comes in handy when backing up a large trailer. I use to put it in 4 lo to back up my driveway, and thats hard on the front u joints when cranking the wheels around . I use a 50 ft 18k lbs goose neck. Now I wont be stressing the front u joints , I slip it in 4 lo and its really only 2lo unless I lock the hubs.

BTW for others that might not want to go this way, what is the part number of the unit bearing that is 230$ and where can other members get it, since so many of us have either bought them for 400-500 each or have been quoted that.

 

I put a ford axle in. it was cheaper and I got a lot of extra bonus stuff like 35 spline shafts, no CAD, hi pinion and dual piston brakes!

 

1320 you must be putting the vented high performance rotors on your truck. Standard Canadian made rotors are around 45 bucks a piece at NAPA. You may be able to get to your bearing, & that is fine if you choose to do all that swapping. I think your idea is great, but much more expensive than you are counting on. I have 273,000 miles on my truck. I hub/bearing change per side.
I can't complain about that.Also, after you get stuck, it is usually too late to get out & lock the hubs because you thought you could make it to start with. Putting the vented rotors on , I am still only spending 660 compared to yours that is twice that. If the brakes, rotors, & calipers are bigger & better, I might would consider it though. I wear out some front breaks. Good Luck.

 

The EMS offroad solution looks cool, but one thing to consider is that with their kit (or any other 1 ton manual lockout front end I've seen), your rotor is sandwiched/pressed onto the backside of your hub, via your lug studs. So while wheel bearing maintenance gets a lot easier, rotor replacement gets a little more complicated. You'll need to remove the lockout hub (with its series of clips, and springs), remove the wheel bearing tension, press out the lug studs, replace the rotor, press in (preferably new) studs, retorque the tension on your bearings, and re assemble your lockout hubs. I've done this far too many times in my jeep.. I haven a brand new '06 so I haven't even looked at the brakes But I'm assuming the rotor will slip on TOP of the lug studs with a stock setup.

Front of hub and rotor assembly:



The backside.. You can see the back sides of the lug's. The rotor is fairly thin, and the hub is very thick, so you press the studs through the rotor, into the Hub.



And just for giggles for anyone who hasn't seen it, here is what your hub/rotor assembly mount on:



And here is the axle shaft I pulled out of there...

 

Mucknut, Nice jeep. You "got some parts" on that thing. What is your front axle a Dana 44? whats it off? Open knuckle?

I got to get nother Jeep, or scott or? Had a '69, '64.

I want to do the lock out hub bearing conversion on my CTD. Changing rotors is just like any other truck with locking hubs. I likes em.

 

In his sig, it says that the jeep is sittin on 42s with a 14 bolt out back, and a D60 up front. Yes, the 60 would be open knuckled, and I'm guessing it's out of a 1 ton GM 4wd pickup.

Mucknut, that's some hellatious damage to a front axle. I've never seen a front axle do that when there were locking hubs up front, usually the hub is the "week link" and lets go before you break an axle. Are you running locking hubs up front?