Hey yall,
My 1987 4x4 failed inspection last week for ball joints and wheel bearings. Just finished installing some ball joints I got through LCE which appear to be OEM quality, although not OEM. The ones on there were moogs, and the crappy dust boots clearly didn't do their job.

As for the bearings, there was definitely some play, and with everything removed it only took about 3-4 lbs to rotate the hubs (where as I've heard 8 lbs is what you're shooting for). Upon dissembling the hubs I found the two 54mm nuts to be VERY loose, but the bearings (at the least the outer) show almost no signs of wear.

Is it possible my bearing are fine and just need to be repacked and reinstalled tighter?

Also, how do you guys deal with with tightening those 54mm nuts?

Let me know,
Thanks all!
-Jackson

 

Also not to confidant on the bearing race removal and installation.

 

It certainly is possible that a cleaning, repack and adjustment is all that you need.

Gotta disassemble them, clean with solvent and inspect. You're gonna need new seals for sure.

You need a 54mm thinwall hub socket. I think 2 and 1/8 inch is the American equivalent.

Bearing races are best driven using either a brass or aluminum drift.

It would be helpful for you to see an experenced person do this work once, but it's not really difficult.

Consult the FSM, you can do it.

 

They definitely didn't look/feel to good when I got em apart, so I drove out out the old races.

To get the new races in I froze them, worked like a charm.

Torqued the 54mm nut to 40 ft-lbs, spun wheel 10x, then loosened and torqued to 22 ft-lbs. With the second nut also at 22 ft-lbs I had exactly 8 lbs of drag.

Everything feels solid with the new bearing and ball joints, can't believe how loose it all was...

Thanks millball.

 

You might want to double check the torque figures again unless you have a 2wd

 

this^^^
I think your numbers are off.
Did you use a fish scale to check pre-load?