i certainly can but im not touching this horse anymore. its dead, rotten, and pulling it back out to hit it again its not a stench i plan on smelling :thumb:
This is why plowing with IFS sucks
- Thread starter Snowbound98
- Start date
Hahaha. I hear ya. The argument gets old. I just can't understand why some go thru hubs and some don't? I have no uneven tire wear, new tires last December, drives straight as an arrow, new front brakes and calipers aren't sticking. I was thinking maybe a sticky caliper is putting heat in the bearing but that's not the case. Looks as if I have a little play in the upper ball joint on driver's side as well. I'll get that changed and then do another alignment. It's just pissing me off that this thing is eating bearings just like my 97 did. Changing the hub bearings once a year isn't the worst thing in the world, but my Denali has had the same bearings on it now for 4 years. I'm just beside myself. I'll kick the horse once more as I walk past as I start to collect parts for an SAS on this truck. I'm tired of the premature failures. Anyone have an idea as to what could be causing this? No hot spots on old bearing, no heat marks on spindle, brake calipers slide nice and fully release, could it be just the roads I'm driving on with this heavy engine? I drive the same roads in Denali without issue?
Looks that way. Top of the bed is at 74.5". Now I gotta make a way to get into this beast. Putting together a 496 for it.
What is the condition of the knuckles? I thin fingers is on to something. There is an issue somewhere...
I can nearly assure you that you have never done the things our ifs truck have seen and survived, only breakage has been pitman arms and the frames by the steering box, on early 90's half ton and a few cv's and half shafts. Fords front hubs were the worst thing we ever had to deal with, constant failure till we went to warn hubs.
I just haven't seen the breakage from our trucks or a buddy who is much more ballsy than I and has done some incredibly stupid things to his ifs truck still no breakage.
SFA has its uses, our deuce and halfs feature SFA's on steroids and maintance on those things is constant, wheel bearing and steering knuckle wear out ever couple years Rockwells may be tuff but it takes a lot of work to keep them going.
In a drunken stupper I once jumped my old 88 c3500 with a 454 not sure how high it went but when it cam down it bent the knuckles and upper a arms, even after relaced the truck was never right again, it always had a severe camber to it, but it didn't at bearing or anything.
I can nearly assure you that you have never done the things our ifs truck have seen and survived, only breakage has been pitman arms and the frames by the steering box, on early 90's half ton and a few cv's and half shafts. Fords front hubs were the worst thing we ever had to deal with, constant failure till we went to warn hubs.
I just haven't seen the breakage from our trucks or a buddy who is much more ballsy than I and has done some incredibly stupid things to his ifs truck still no breakage.
SFA has its uses, our deuce and halfs feature SFA's on steroids and maintance on those things is constant, wheel bearing and steering knuckle wear out ever couple years Rockwells may be tuff but it takes a lot of work to keep them going.
In a drunken stupper I once jumped my old 88 c3500 with a 454 not sure how high it went but when it cam down it bent the knuckles and upper a arms, even after relaced the truck was never right again, it always had a severe camber to it, but it didn't at bearing or anything.
I'm sure the knuckles aren't the issue. Even if they were, an alignment would have the tires and bearings spinning true. The truck doesn't pull. Drives straight as an arrow. Bearing seat in knuckles perfectly. I replaced everything on the front. I have sleeved tie rods. The tie rods are still fine. I just can't see why I would have to replace hub bearings every year. Like I said, it wasn't a big deal. It takes me about 2 hrs to do both front hubs and that's from jacking it up to putting tools away. I understand everything wears, but I'm just leaning toward removing as many moving parts from the front suspension as possible by doing the SAS. I'm gonna start collecting parts, prob go with a link setup with coilovers. I'm not jumping into this anytime soon but hopefully next year when these hubs go bad again, I'll have most parts to do the swap. I don't care if it rides a little rougher, I didn't buy an escalade. I bought a 3/4 ton work horse. I don't plan on any hardcore wheeling or massive lift either. Maybe 6". To each their own I guess.
FWIW, The Nut on the end of the stub axle has zero impact on the bearing. You are only squeezing the center section. The Pre-load is set at the manufacturer with spacers inside the bearing.
The mounting tabs, however, can distort the outer race if the bearing if they are not seating properly either because of debris or poor alignment of the bore and the flat that the tabs seat against.
The bore in the knuckle itself must provide complete support of the bearing too.
The mounting tabs, however, can distort the outer race if the bearing if they are not seating properly either because of debris or poor alignment of the bore and the flat that the tabs seat against.
The bore in the knuckle itself must provide complete support of the bearing too.
Another FWIW. The hub bearings on these trucks fail mostly because of overheating. Of coarse, more load, more heat.
If I run the big meats on my truck with the 10" rims, I have no issues if I don't have extended highway runs. That is, if I keep it below 65 MPH most of the time. For long hauls, I switch to the highway shoes on 8" rims that keep the load more centered on the bearings and reduce the heat buildup. If I don't, I'll kill the bearings within the year.
If I run the big meats on my truck with the 10" rims, I have no issues if I don't have extended highway runs. That is, if I keep it below 65 MPH most of the time. For long hauls, I switch to the highway shoes on 8" rims that keep the load more centered on the bearings and reduce the heat buildup. If I don't, I'll kill the bearings within the year.
Fingers- did you throw away the washer that contacts the outer hub? And even if you did, the nut still touches that hub and puts a squeeze on that bearing. The 2wd versions found on Dodge trucks are preloaded from factory and we've all seen what happens to them. If your saying torquing axle nut to 170ftlbs doesn't preload your hubs, go take your axle nut off and run without it. The axle will not fall out, it can't, not enuff room to. No wait, you may be driving near or around my loved ones and I wouldn't want that to happen to them. What would be the point of putting a preload on the inner races? That don't make sense!
I said my hubs sit true to my knuckle and are seated in there just fine. No distortion of any kind. I understand that the bore on knuckle support bearing, the outer bearing case, but the bearings support the vehicle. That's not even arguable.
All bearings premature wear is due to high heat, over loaded, or contamination. I can't do anything different to remedy that. Unless I just don't drive it.
As far as running "big meats", I don't. I would never run tires that I would need to switch out before I get on the highway or expressway. I have stock GM rims with radial on road tires, Dueler Revo 2 to be exact.
All bullshit aside, I don't know what's causing the bearings to go out. And for the record I'm not the only one this is happening to and also I'm not some shade tree mechanic that is doing this wrong. I have my ASE certificates to prove it. Not blowing my own horn just informing you that I know what the hell I'm doing and have the proper tools to do it.
I said my hubs sit true to my knuckle and are seated in there just fine. No distortion of any kind. I understand that the bore on knuckle support bearing, the outer bearing case, but the bearings support the vehicle. That's not even arguable.
All bearings premature wear is due to high heat, over loaded, or contamination. I can't do anything different to remedy that. Unless I just don't drive it.
As far as running "big meats", I don't. I would never run tires that I would need to switch out before I get on the highway or expressway. I have stock GM rims with radial on road tires, Dueler Revo 2 to be exact.
All bullshit aside, I don't know what's causing the bearings to go out. And for the record I'm not the only one this is happening to and also I'm not some shade tree mechanic that is doing this wrong. I have my ASE certificates to prove it. Not blowing my own horn just informing you that I know what the hell I'm doing and have the proper tools to do it.
12-15k. I have 3 other vehicles that I drive occasionally to keep fluid moving and batteries charged. I'm not doing 30-50k per year on this truck. I'm still below the average.
But I live in illinois. 15 miles south of Chicago. We have 2 seasons, winter and construction and they always run into each other. I'm a defensive driver and I always avoid pot holes and bumps whenever possible so it's not like I'm driving thru a land mine field or anything but anyone from around here knows that you can drive in any direction and hit a state border and immediately roads get better.
I drive way more than you, and I have bigger and wider than stock tires on 20" wheels with less offset than the stock wheels so they put more stress on the hubs. I replaced both hubs already, one around 80k and the other around 100k miles, and the replacements are still doing just fine at about 160k miles now. I wish I could tell you why you're having so much trouble. I've also only ever replaced 1 idler arm. I still have all original ball joints, bushings, pitman arm and tie rods.
I wish you could too Josh. I have no idea. I wish I could see something wrong. It's history repeating itself all over again from my 97 but minus the plow, lift and oversized tires. I'm using Timken bearing, which I've always had good luck with. Idk. Maybe next set I'll buy from stealership and see how long they last. I'm beside myself here.
timkens are good quality from my experience. Does the knuckle machining look good? I have only had a few wheel bearngs go out on gm ifs. and only one go out in a 3/4 and larger hd trucks. I would say boosted launches is what killed it. I have gvw enough to bend a rear aam 11.5 rear axe but the front held fine.
SFA IFS battle will last forever, some of us love our IFS and some love their SFA trucks. And you sure can convince one another that one is better than the other.
SFA IFS battle will last forever, some of us love our IFS and some love their SFA trucks. And you sure can convince one another that one is better than the other.
