we put new wheel bearings on my sons truck...in less than 200 miles he had a popping in the right front...the outer bearing was busted. we got a new set for both sides and replaced the ...bearings, races, spindel and rotor on the right side. we ran out of time so we had to plan on doing the other side the next day...well on the way home from work the next day the left side went out...we put new ...bearings, races and rotor on that side. this is the same brand of grease i have used for years (not the same can). i have it on the bearings in my mav. and it has 10-12,000 on them. the old grease was ...black... i have switched to a diff. grease, the new i am using is ...red... i took the bearings off the mav. and cleaned them up and packed them with the new grease. i am wondering what happened...maybe a bad set of bearings? ......
When you put the first set of bearings in, did you replace the races too? If not, could have been some differences between the new bearing and old race.
I would check an make sure proper bearing sets. Also, did you clean them with solvent? Never blow "spin" dry them. Any grease properly packed in bearings is going to last more than 200 miles. After you adjusted bearings, did you have any free play?
i read once, to tighten the nut...27 ft.lbs....(to seat the bearing). back off and retighten to ...17 ft. lbs...... anyone have any diff. specs. on how tight this nut should be... ......
Think this may be your problem, after you re-tighten to 17 ft lb back off 1/2 turn them tighten to 10-15 INCH,, REPEAT,, INCH POUNDS then put your lock on align for cotter pin.
Sounds like a bad bearing. Early Jap bearings were hardened through. A shock load would cause them to break. That was a long time ago. They got that solved pretty quick. I personally prefer Timken bearings. I retired from Timken. A good way to set up wheel bearings is to grease and install them, then while spinning the wheel tighten the nut pretty snug. You will feel drag on the wheel. Back off the nut, do not spin the wheel. Tighten with your hand. thumb and forefinger as snug as you can. No special tools needed.
Yeh ...inch pounds are pretty small compared to foot pounds. In the shop we always spun the wheel and tightened the nut until the resistants would slow the rotation of the wheel a bit - then we would spin it up again and tighten once more until it would bind up again. Then we would relax it about a 1/4 to 1/2 turn and that would be that. I have never had a bearing fail that soon - even if it went completely dry with low grease.
