so, like the title says, i did my wheel bearings less than a year ago, and im already getting the loose wheel bearing noises and a pulsing brake pedal yet again. ive searched through 8 pages without a definitive answer.

 

ive tightened the nut several times as tight as i can get it with a 2ft breaker bar, and my 180lb self jumping on the bar, advancing to another pin hole each time, and the problem has gone away each time... but im afraid i might have worn out the bearing by now. i torqued the rear retainer ring to 110 ftlbs when i did them, and used a quality heavy duty grease (almagard 3752). the stub on the bearings are on was quite a bit rusty, i cleaned it up with sandpaper, but the bearing doesn't slide on by any means.

 

 

so, did i do them wrong, or is it because of the fact im rolling on 29" tires? or am i missing something?

Sounds like your cone washers are shot to me.

 

GD

If you have rear drums, I think the torque is 30 ft/lb.

 

I do not remember if you have cone washer on those.

 

Sam

Is the flat washer in place? If it isn't it won't torque correctly the cone washer wears out and eventually the hub will start to strip.

is there any way of identifying if the cone washer is shot, aside from obvious stuff? like, do they get smaller and not maintain clearance that well?

 

or are you talking about the slightly coned flat washer (bellville?) between the nut and the much larger cone shaped spacer.

 

ill look into scooping some up.

 

i have all the proper hardware in place, according to the FSM. there is no way they could last any bit of time torqued to 30ftlbs. i originally torqued it to 150, then increased by 25ftlbs each time the noise came back, maxed out the 250ftlb torque wrench, noise came back, and i pulled out the breaker bar and jumped on it till i got to the next pin hole. and that's where im at now.

i torque the ************ outa thoose by design you cant over toruqe it but you shure can under do it on my mud dragster we put them to a min of 200 ft lbs and after 6 years of mud racing still same berring i drilled and put in grease zirks on knuckles to alow for service

ps mud dragster runs a 31 paddle tire so doubt its your tires

You really can't over torque them. The bearings are seperated by a spacer that sets the preload on them. More torque just means higher clamping force on the axle shaft by the cone washer. It won't hurt the bearings any.

 

Inspect the edges of the cone washer. They should be smooth and without any lip on the large OD of the washer. The split in them needs to be free of burrs and clean so it can clamp down on the axle shaft. The mating surface in the hub also needs to be clean and smooth. If you can, post a close-up picture of the cone washer for us.

 

GD

interesting.

 

thanks for the clarification guys. ill get out there and check out those cone washers. i didn't clean them off last time i did the bearings so that split is probably packed with dirt.