My right front wheel bearing is showing some play, so I figure it's time to do both sides. From what I can gather from searching old threads, the wheel bearings are completely sealed and unserviceable, however when I do a parts look up on any auto parts website they don't show many options as far as sealed units go, but they show many options for individual bearings and seals. So what is the truth here, are they rebuildable or not? If not, what bearings have you all had the best luck with? Which will prevent me from having to service again in the near future?

 

Front wheel bearings on 4-by's are sealed. Make sure you get the right one per ABS or not, ABS equipped trucks have provisions for the sensor. I got Timkens about 80k ago from autozone I think, for around 200 and change non abs. The previous ones were some other chinese brand and one lasted less than 10k, and I plow every season.

P.S. start soaking that big center nut (holds stub shaft into bearing) with something like pb blaster etc. I've seen 2 take the threads off the stub shaft with the nut. If you can't break the big nut, I drill a few tiny holes through the face of the nut (parallel with the axle shaft) and split it with a chisel.

 

Thanks for the response. I've actually removed the big nut before, so I'm not too worried about it. 30 seconds before I read your reply I was reading an article on DIY penetrating oil, so maybe this will be a good opportunity to try it out!

They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.

*Penetrating oil ..... Average load*

None ..................... 516 pounds
WD-40 .................. 238 pounds
PB Blaster ............. 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ..... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil ............ 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix....53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this one particular test. Our local machinist group mixed up a batch, and we all now use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.

 

Only 2wd bearings are serviceable.

Instructions on how to replace the rotors, same as replacing the bearings> https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...6&postcount=10