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Ever had a unit bearing come apart


mvusse
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Not personally, but I have heard of it happening.

 

I'd say you're pretty lucky you didn't end up rolling it many, many times.

 

I've had two come apart during removal before I realized that my dad was wrong, and slide hammers are not a good idea to take those off.

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Wow, that's not cool. :eek:

 

I'm glad no one was badly hurt. :cheers:

 

 

Was it showing signs of looseness?

 

There was a stub shaft in there, right? (hard to tell from pics).

 

Was this an OEM hub, or an aftermarket one?

 

 

Again, glad it was just the truck that got messed up (and/or a pair of trousers ;) ).

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:eek:

 

From the pictures........looks like you made it home.......one way or the other :roll:

 

So........much other damage other than the unit bearing, and rotor.......like did you grind the yoke down to a hugh flat spot :hmm:

 

I'll agree, you walked away from it upright :thumbsup:

 

And not like some others :(

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Yeah, all of a sudden the front corner of the truck fell down while I heard a bang and a bunch of grinding. I checked my mirror, followed by looking over my shoulder to see my tire rolling along beside the truck and traffic hitting the brakes clearing the rightmost lane for me, so I just steered over to the side of the road while staying on the gas to keep moving. Once I was off the road I slowed down pretty fast because the knuckle was digging itself into the ground. When I got out grease was boiling out of the upper ball joint, the broke off end of the axle shaft was glowing red, and the pavement around the mostly buried knuckle was on fire.

 

I asked my 13 year old if that adventure was better than going off road (where we were on our way to). Her answer? "No, 'cuz I didn't get to drive."

 

Already have most all parts lined up to fix it.

 

What sucks is that unit bearing was 13 months old with a 12 month warranty.

 

It was an after market Timken hub. There WAS a stub shaft in it, but it snapped off in the process. I knew something was wrong when the truck would pull left and right, but after pulling over and inspecting I wrote it off to play in the axle end mount of the track bar. It did it a few more times, and then it started pulling left pretty good, but I kept going. Had to use more throttle to keep speed going uphill than I remembered, but wrote that off due to a possible low tire. Turns out the hub must have been ceasing. After I pulled over and got going again I was thinking of turning around at the next exit (6 miles from home), but by that time it seemed fine again. 17 miles further down I lost the wheel, costing me a $80 plus tax tow.

 

Need an outer axle shaft, steering knuckle, both ball joints (lower was ground off, upper had the grease boil out), brake calliper, pads and rotor. And possibly the brake hose as the calliper was being dragged along by it.

 

Steering knuckle might be okay, but as hot as it got from skiing on the pavement, I wouldn't trust it any more. May also have bent from the impact.

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I'm glad no one was badly hurt. :cheers:

 

 

x2 on this, since you had your 13 year old daughter with you. image_209027.gif

 

And I learned something today,

 

if it feels like a ft bearing is pulling/locking up/maybe seizing..... stop right away, and check it out.

 

 

I never heard of this happening in this way before.

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WOW.

If you need any parts, I'll probably be throwing this stuff away next weekend. viewtopic.php?f=24&t=22006

 

Thanks for the offer, but shipping would probably cost more than getting them from pap. By now I probably would have got all the parts there already if a friend in Cleveland hadn't mentioned to he has everything and I can pick it all up tomorrow night.

 

You might be better off finding a whole replacement axle, The C may have gotten bent when it dropped.

 

That is my main remaining worry, but by just looking at it it seems okay. I think the suspension soaked up the impact quite well, especially since I have very soft shocks up front that belong on a compact car.

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Now I know to check the bearings (a quick temp check with hand should suffice) next time it acts like that.

 

The steering left/right I felt evidently was pulling right/not pulling right.

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Now I know to check the bearings (a quick temp check with hand should suffice) next time it acts like that.

 

That was my thought too (after reading this thread).

 

The replacement hubs were Timken branded? Or where they a store brand (Autozone, etc), rebuilt using Timken bearings?

 

I'm just wondering. :dunno:

 

Timken has moved some of it's production overseas, so I wouldn't be shocked if brand new hubs they built came apart,

but I'm thinking it would be more likely to see used (worn) hub assemblies, rebuilt by a third party (using Timken bearings) pull apart.

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Like everyone, I'm real happy to hear that you and your daughter are fine. That's the important thing. :D

 

I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often on rigs running 35" and up tires. The stock steering and suspension systems were never designed to handle that extra stress, especially using aftermarket parts.

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