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Took a turn today and had a horendous noise/grind in the right front.
Removed the wheel and dust cover...the outer Snap ring had come off the end of the Axle (it was floating around in the cap) and the axle was walking out of the hub. This could have been bad...very bad.
I replaced the ring and good ta go!
Anyone have this "incident" before? I don't know if the last person in there hadn't seated the ring correctly or what. Scary stuff.
The last 2 wheel bearings I worked on had that very problem, one of them chewed up up the gear teeth and took a lot of work to repair. I tool the dremel and made sure the groove was clean and then once the snap ring was in, rotated it several times and even tried to pry it off with a small screwdriver. One of the VXes I HAD done the bearings on, the other one (same day) I had not touched. It IS important that the thin washer be on the shaft before putting the snap ring on.
Good points Tone...this should be a regular inspection point when rotating the tires...be sure that ring is seated really "good-like" with the washer in place, it only takes a few seconds.
After tightening the hub nut using the hub nut tool, rotate the hub assembly several times, forward and back. You will then need to loosen the hub nut and rotate the hub assembly forward and reverse several times. Repeat the tightening, rotating, loosening, and rotating sequence several more times. This action distributes the grease and seats the bearings. Tighten the hub nut one more time. Attach a spring scale to one of the wheel studs and pull. I started them at 3 o'clock (forward preload) and at 9 o'clock (reverse preload) and pulled straight down to measure pre-load. The Isuzu shop manual shows the mechanic pulling from the 12 o'clock position. Adjust the tightness of the hub nut until your preload reads between 2.6lbs-4.0lbs for old bearings and a new seal or 4.4lbs-5.5lbs for a new seal and new bearings. I tried to obtain these readings in both forward and reverse motion. Be sure to do this without the brake caliper installed.
This was taken from a bearing re-pack "how to" over at planetisuzu.com. & will help in the proper adjustment of your front bearings.