[ruffram]

Has anyone out there ever had to replace the wheel bearing on the front of 94+ 1/2 ton dodge's? I have a slight squeaking noise at low speed when the window is down. I have beat the bearings in and out several times and I have 10 inch wide wheels with a lot of offset that put addidtional leverage and stress on the bearing. These wide tires may have been the last straw. I only have 60,000 miles on my truck, but most of that is hard offraoding and 65+ mph on gravel roads. If anyone knows how to spot a bad bearing please let me know b/c they are $100 my cost at my parts store and I don't want to buy something I don't have to.

 

[canyonero02]

take the bearing out, if they have alot of play in them or are gritty feeling when you roll them with your fingers then they probably need to be replaced.

 

[Outlaw Ram]

I had to have my front one replaced cause the big tires wear down bearings faster, plus the tires are too noisy to even hear the bearing going bad. What size tires are you running?

 

[jprtroy]

I had to replace both fronts last year. Unfortunatly, my wheel bearings are of the NON-servicable style! 1 peice (P.O.S's) My tech manual shows normal wheel bearings,(inner/outterr and races) but my front axle shows different. And at $250/ea I was a little surprized. Off to my mechanic the truck went. (My park frowns on ME working on my vehicles!)
With the bad bearings, I felt a shimmy in the front while making slight left or right turns at hwy speed (driving hwy17)Traveling straight was ok, just when I input left or right did I feel the vibe.
94'1/2 4x4
Troy

 

[ruffram]

I have 33" thornbirds on right now but before summer I will ahve 35's which will do anything but help my bearing problem. You guys who had them replaced, how many miles did you have when they went bad?

 

[Outlaw Ram]

Well I had a ton of miles on my truck and never replaced the bearings. With the 36's it took about 4 months before one bearing went bad. Usually its the front bearings that go because of the stress of the wheels when turning.

 

[79W-150]

Sorry to hear about your wheel bearings, but I have to thank you. Your price makes me feel better because I was complaining about paying $60 for bearing for my '79. All four bearing in the front (both inner and outters) are really loose, I'm not sure if they are bad or just loose. Tommorow I'm gonna tear the wheels off and see what I can do to keep the old bearings if they're still good.

Later,

-Chris

 

[ruffram]

I jacked up my truck and tried to wiggle the tire vertically and horizontally, there was no play either direction. I even rolled the tire over and tried it again. I did this on both front wheels. I have decided that my sqealing was probably brake related. It wasn't very bad and quit as soon as I tapped the brakes. That led me to believe I had a loose bearing, but after driving through hard rain and hitting six inch deep water puddles at speed it quit. Must have washed something. Oh well all's well that ends well. Thanks for the help anyway.

 

[79W-150]

Glad to hear its not your wheel bearings. Side to side and up and down will check the wheel bearings, balljoints, tie-rods, etc....

-Chris