[Steve91T]

Hello all. Long story short, my buddies and myself replaced the wheel bearings on the back of my 99 F250 the other day. We used a couple of different write ups that we found as a guide. All three of us know how to turn a wrench. When taking spindle off and removing the seal and bearings, we found a shim that was between the inner bearing and the seal. We had no idea what it's purpose was as the write ups didn't mention anything about a shim.

So we put them aside and went to work on the hubs with intentions on figuring out the shims later. Well guess what, after it was all done and we were cleaning up, we found the shims on the workbench. Crap.












In that last pic you can see the old bearings, one with the shim placed on it as it was installed, the other with it laying next to it.

Our best guess is that shim is there to keep the bearing from possibly chewing up the seal. I really thought the new bearings would come with a new shim, but they didn't. Is it possible that the new bearings already have this incorporated? I didn't take any pics of the new bearings.

So what do you guys think? So we have to pull everything apart, which will damage the new seals requiring replacement, and install those shims? Or will it be fine how it is?

One more question. I thought the bearings were bad because when I push on the side of the truck and put my hand on top of the rear tires, I feel some slight movement. With the old bearings the movement was enough to cause a clunk. With new bearings there no clunk, but I can still feel a very small amount of movement.

I'm thinking it has to be normal since I'm positive the bearings were installed and torqued correctly (sans shims).

Thanks guys.

 

[yan7gin]

this "shim" is the oil slinger part number BC3Z-4670-B, witch make sure that the bearing get the proper lubrication.

the movement you feel is normal. may be your old bearing needed just a slight adjustment

 

[Steve91T]

this "shim" is the oil slinger part number BC3Z-4670-B, witch make sure that the bearing get the proper lubrication.

the movement you feel is normal. may be your old bearing needed just a slight adjustment

Yep. We were surprised that the old bearings looked pretty good. I think they were fine. Along with the clunking wheels, I have a pretty loud whirling noise that's speed dependent. The noise and clinking wheels led me to believe that wheel bearings were bad. Once on the lift and the axles out, I was able to spin the drive shaft by hand and found the center drive shaft bearing is bad.

Oh well. At least I now know how to replace wheel bearings.


Oil slingers sound pretty important. Guess we're doing this again. I'll order new slingers and seals and make sure the beer fridge is stocked.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Steve91T]

After more reading, turns out those oil slingers are not to oil the bearings but to help sling the oil away from the seal to help prevent leaks. So if that's the case, I'll wait until they leak since I'll have to destroy the seal anyway to install the slingers.

 

[yan7gin]

IMO you should reinstall the slinger soon as possible. yes the slinger in defecting oil to prevent seal leakage and by doing so it reflect the oil to the bearing (that's my thought)... i would redo it now and call it good for long time instead of just waiting failure of the seal or maybe a bearing because lack of lubrication. and it would give me one more reason to have another beer night LOL

Personal decision, up to you

 

[Texkenusmc]

At least I know what they are for. When I did mine I just put mine back in the order they came off. I did not what they were for just figured they were important.