Need some advice on inspecting and replacing front hub bearings.
While driving around last night, I noticed a bit of a wobble and funny noise in the front of the truck after making a hard left hand turn. After about a half mile it seeemed to go away and come back, and about a mile later the wobble was back to point that I pulled off at a buddy's place to check the front end out. After getting it up in the air and looking at both sides, came to the conclusion it was the Left Hand side that needed to be looked at, so at luck would have it I am tearing my front hub apart at dusk in a driveway.
To make a long story short, the outer ball bearing race had desctructed, and I was able to pull two balls out at two different spots. The inner appeared to be intact, so under the lovely glow of a flashlight I made the decision to put it all back together and venture the last mile home and it is now sitting in the garage. I am hopeful I did not score the spindle, or damage the hub, but figured I would ask a few questions before tearing it apart like:
- How do I determine if the hub or spindle were damaged?
- How do I determin if the inner bearing is next to go?
- What should I look for on the right hand side when I tear that one apart prior to another drive?
I should add, that I have the tapered conversion on order from CPP, for the past month, as a planned upgrade with disc brakes later this fall. I want to get the truck bak onthe road, but do not want to wast $40 on a new outer to find out I end up ruining something, or that another portion of the bearings fail. I am assuming that even if the tapereds were in my hand right now they are not a simple pull the rollers and swap them out. Nor am I assuming I could slip the outer taper on and leave inner ball?
Help....
signed, Frustrated & Disappointed
p.s. this is not doing much to instill confidence from my wife who thinks a 57 is a cool truck if it is someone elses...keeps saying I should have bought an SSR
