Replaced front drivers side hub assembly

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Willie Anglin

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Mar 2, 2010
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Location
Burnsville, NC
Took a little trip around Northern Georgia, Western North Carolina and Eastern Ten. over the holidays and noticed a grinding sound coming from the drivers side wheel area when making a fairly sharp right turn. Got out and felt the wheel center and hub and for sure it was warm. Limped on back home and got an assembly ordered Saturday and put on yesterday (Monday). Got the thing for $160 with taxes, the cable and everything. Had not changed out a hub assembly on a 4X4 so did not know what to expect but got it done in less than an hour. Piece of cake but just not happy this happened before 70K miles. Any who all is good and it is rolling again.
 
Don't suppose one of y'all could do a project write-up on this, maybe, huh, huh?? I could probably stand to do this on both hubs but ain't got a clue as to how. Thanks in advance.
 
Did not think about it at the time and also thought there probably was a write up on it. Let me see if I can remember.



Put vehicle in Low 4X4 (helps breaking loose the axle nut if tire is off ground)

Put jack vehicle up a little but break loose lugs before off ground

Jack up until off ground

Remove lugs and wheel

Compress front pads (I use a big screwdriver) a little to enable removal of caliper

Remove whole assembly by removing 2- 15mm caliper bracket bolts, leave brake line attached

Break loose hub assembly nut, do not remember size, but over an inch

Back off nut until even with threads

I then broke loose the hub assembly mounting bolts (3 - 15mm on back side) (turn wheel get at left/right easier)

I then put a metal block over the end of the axle nut and whacked it with a claw hammer until the axle was backed out of the assembly (do it right and use a puller, I have no patience)

Disconnect ABS cable by inserting a small phillips screwdriver into clip and tilting outwards, pull down on cable and it should pop right out, cable has one screw on back of where the hub assembly attaches and 3 plastic snap in mounting brackets

Reverse all this and you have a installed hub assembly



Please chime in guys where I have omitted or wrongly described or wrongly done something. This is the way I did it and it was less than an hour without any power tools what so ever
 
It is VERY important that you dont over torque the center nut when you put it back on, as i found out the hard way ! UPS should be delivering my second set of wheel hubs any day now :cry:



You dont have to pound that axle out of the hub, it'll pull right off when you remove the hub.



Use a torque wrench to put the center nut on and torque it to about 200 ft. lbs. (Haynes manual says 157-213). So if you just drove it on with an impact wrench like i did, go out there right now and back it off !
 
Another important step, you should replace that center nut as it supposed to be a one time use. I also did my front bearings this weekend and used the old nut, need to order new ones. The nut is 33mm
 
My axle would not just pull out. It was stuck pretty good for what ever reason and I just tightened the big nut with a short power handle, not impact wrench. I will retighten with a torque wrench though. Why the new nut, is it a lock nut or something?
 
Mine both pulled right off, maybe the heat fused your together ? If i remember correctly, the nut thats on there has soft threads that collapse themselves when you tighten them up so they grab the spindle better. Someone correct me if im wrong !
 
That sounds about right, not that sure but it is like a lock nut, so once you use it, it doesn't stay locked on the threads anymore and can loosen up. It's better to be safe than sorry. Iknow this happened on my focus and now I know why. Get new nuts!:bwahaha:
 

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