Lucky me, I got to change my front wheel bearings last Sunday. Well the left side anyway.

My question is this, there was a grey "plastic" spacer between the bearing and the axle flange. It is smooth on one side and four grooves cut out of the other side. Does anyone know if it matters which way this thing goes in? Either I am paranoid or there is a slight pulsation in the left side now that the job is done.

Thanks,

Karl

 

BUMP for you Karl, I've never had to do a wheel bearing on this truck thank god, so not much help. I'll look through my Haynes manual and see if it says anything. Do you still feel like it's making a noise?

 

I need to buy a Haynes manual for my truck.

I actually put it in neutral today to eliminate things. Yup, pulsation about 45 mph. Gonna take it apart and flip that spacer.

 

Karl, is it possible the tire wore funny from riding on a bad wheel bearing and it's just a little out of round now? I'd probably take it in and see if you can just have that tire re-balanced before you tear into it again, it'd only cost a couple bucks and at least eliminate it as a possibility.

 

I thought about it. But considering that I just did the ball joints over the summer, it wasn't that long that it went south on me. In fact, it just slid off of the axle shaft. You know I'm OCD about my truck. The tire was solid on a 6/12 shake so I doubt it's anything to sweat. Hell, I don't know if it was there prior now that I think about it.

 

***UPDATE***


Well! No ****! The inside diameter of the bearing was too big! As I was reassembling the hub today, I noticed up and down play in the axle shaft with the hub out. The tire was solid as a rock, but the axle shaft was all flopping around. Sure enough, the other side was tight.

I'm taking it back to O'Reilly's tomorrow and ordering one from Tousley Ford Monday.

 

Luckily I haven't had to do bearings yet with 266k on it, those grooves may be for the automatic hubs, the grooves may be there to allw the vaccum to the hubs.

 

Correct you are, Bob. I switched it around, but it didn't stop the pulsation, duh. I'm pretty upset that I paid $200 for a poorly made bearing assembly, so it's going back.

 

I had that issue with an oreily wheel bearing for a dodge Dana 60 since then I boycotted orielys and. Get everything from Napa these days