Anyone know the torque rating for front wheel bearings?

[Little_Richard]

I just finished putting new bearings on the front of my truck and the book I was reading said to torque the bearing to 50lb/ft to preload the bearing. It seemed like it was pretty tight, but I have no other reference go to.

This is on an '88 F-350 4wd front axle.

TIA

LR

[tickman]

Tighten the inner lock nut to 50 ft lbs while rotating hub to seat bearing. Back off inner nut and retighten to 30-40 ft lbs while rotating back and forth. Back off nut 90 degrees. Install retainer plate to line up pin in nut to hole in plate. Then torque the outer nut to 160-205 ft lbs. Final end play should be 0.004 of inch. It should take 20 inch pounds of torque to rotate hub assy. I have the page out a shop manual but cant figure out how to attach.

[Mr_Roboto]

That could be right, the bearings and nut are pretty large diameter. I've always done wheel bearings by hand rather than with a torque wrench.

The proper procedure is to tighten the nut, spin the rotor to allow the bearing to seat, loosen and then retighten again. If you don't do it twice, the bearing may not be fully seated and it could loosen up, causing play and excessive wear.

[Little_Richard]

Cool, Thanks, that sounds a lot better than what my manual said.

LR

[Mr_Roboto]

I learned about auto repair as a teenager from "Motors" repair manuals from the 1930's. Those old books have things in them that just aren't available anymore. Since auto repair was relatively new back then, they gave quite a bit of detail.

[icanfixall]

Motor's Manuals.... Big... Blue..... Oh yeah... Thats what I learned from too. I read it like the Bible. Front to back over and over. I loved that big, blue note.. err book. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img]