need help stat!!!

[p_justin13]

Took apart front drivers side hub to replace bearings all went ok with that but upon reassembly the axle will not come all the way forward into place. The seal on the back side of the hub has 1/4 inch gap between metal ring and hub itself and ideas on how to get the rest of the way back in????? dying here pulling whats left of the hair out!

[VXorado]

Add some grease to the axle shaft/splines and try reinserting the axle at different rotations. If you're still unable to get the axle to fit, I would make sure the bearings are installed correctly. The half shaft can get a little hung up where it mates to the hub but shouldn't require much force when everything is lined up correctly.

[p_justin13]

Is there a bearing inside the hub assembely itself??

[VXorado]

No just the two inner/outer bearings/races

I can't remember if the inner race on the hub mates with the CV. If it does and the inner seal wasn't seated correctly, it could be blocking the CV. I can't tell you for sure because its been a while since I repacked the bearings.

[p_justin13]

i have the entire rotor and bearings back off and i still can't get the spline to come all the way through. It's like something inside the hub itself is holding it up

[Y33TREKker]

If you're positive the rear seal was the correct replacement part, are you saying it's the real seal itself that's preventing the entire hub assembly from sliding all the way onto the spindle?

If that's the case, it could be that the surface area of the spindle that mates to the inside of the rear hub seal just needs to be smoothed over with some emery cloth. A little surface corrosion can sometimes prevent two such surfaces with such tight clearances from sliding together.

[p_justin13]

It's like the spindle portion of the the driveshaft itself is getting caught up on something inside?? If you were to look at the back of the hub where the metal cupped seal is on the back side of the cv joint wont come forward into the proper place to seat up against the hub. trying to post a pic on the main page now.

[Y33TREKker]

Not to sound like a smart *****, but did you add a lot of grease to the inside of the hub as you were installing the bearings? If there is too much grease inside, the hydraulic action of the grease itself will prevent all the pieces from coming together.

Just a quick thought anyway, I'm still looking at the picture you posted and trying to come up with other ideas.

[p_justin13]

in the process of cleaning the hell out of now to even see if will dry fit. Is it possible parts of the splines could have sheered off and that could be holding it out. Had some debris come out but nothing to big or unexpected

[Y33TREKker]

in the process of cleaning the hell out of now to even see if will dry fit. Is it possible parts of the splines could have sheered off and that could be holding it out. Had some debris come out but nothing to big or unexpected
It's possible I guess, but I'd suggest waiting till later to consider that as worst case scenario type stuff. Had you added much/any grease to that cv-joint dust seal that fits to the back of the spindle assembly? A lot of grease in that dust seal could cause the same type of hydraulic lock situation that could prevent those two pieces from fitting together.

Short of that happening, I'd be inclined to go with VXorado and say that it may just be a matter of turning the hub assembly this way or that until the splines on the cv axle line up with the splines on the hub flange. (assuming that the axle is currently coming all the way through the hub assembly that is).

[p_justin13]

got it all cleaned out and there were some small pins that came out but not sure if from the hub or from the spline on the drive shaft they were round and about a little less than a half inch long any ideas

[Triathlete]

Sounds like needle bearings. Do you have factory hubs or manual hubs?

[p_justin13]

factory

[Y33TREKker]

If what you found was needle bearing(s), isn't it most likely they were from the old inner or outer bearings? If everything is now cleaned out, and you were replacing the old bearings with new, there should currently be nothing to stop the cv axle from going all the way through the hub assembly. Have you tried putting everything back together since finding and removing the suspected needle bearing(s)?

[Triathlete]

I think Y33 is on the right track. The factory hubs are just flanges and have no bearings.

[Y33TREKker]

I'm left wondering why the cv-axle dust seal got pushed away from the rear of the spindle assembly in the first place. With the hub assembly removed, there should be nothing to obstruct the cv-axle assembly from mating back up to the spindle assembly.

Once those two assemblies are mated completely with no gap remaining like you were first experiencing, I remember having to spin my hub assembly as I was putting it back on to get it onto the spindle assembly as far as it would go, and at that point (and after using the hub nut tool to set the preload), sliding the hub flange onto the axle splines and spinning the hub until the bolt holes lined up. IIRC that is, it's been a long time since I replaced my front bearings too.

[PK]

Sounds like your inner hub needle bearing has broken up.

Have you replaced that??

Item 6 on the attached.

1520


PK

[p_justin13]

well i got it back together with everthing cleaned out was a pain in the you know what barely could get the snap ring back on. Hoping your correct about the old wheel bearings. This was the wheel the the caliper had locked up on so I'm guessing I torched the bearings. The didn't look to bad to the naked eye to so I guess I won't know till I give it a test drive in a few minutes. Thanks all for the help!

[Y33TREKker]

...barely could get the snap ring back on...
Sounds about normal.


...This was the wheel the the caliper had locked up on so I'm guessing I torched the bearings. The didn't look to bad to the naked eye...
I'd say if your bearings had done any damage, you'd have easily seen it in the race areas of the hub.

As long as everything went back together with no more hiccups and you got the preload set correctly, you should be good to go.

[p_justin13]

Got it back together finally. Just went for a test run. Noise has definetly quited down but still a little grindage very faint and feels kind of loose. Well we'll see its a 35 mile drive home from the shop so plenty of time to sink or swim on this one. Thanks all for the help!

[p_justin13]

well turns out it was the knuckle. Once I removed the cv axle a ton of small pins about a half inch long and two washers fell right out. one thin almost like a snap ring and the other thicker with a hole the size of the shaft in it. so question of the day is where the hell can I find a new knuckle??

[Triathlete]

Are you sure you need the whole knuckle or can you just have the old bearing pressed out and a new one pressed in? If the latter I would give Merlin a call for the bearings. If you need the whole knuckle I would search the recycleers or those parting out their VX's on here.

[Triathlete]

Looking at the pic PK posted it looks like you should be able to replace just the bearings.

[p_justin13]

I just ordered a whole knuckle from a trooper for 60 bucks from a bone yard would assume they wouldnt remove the hub. I can't find for the life of me anywhere that has the parts so yes assuming that it would be a special order from merlin. I hadn't realized that you guys had posted onto the second page totally missed the whole bit on the needle bearings. Would have saved me so much time I feel like a dumb ***! lol 18 hr work days have got me a little to loopy I think. Thanks again to all for the help if anyone else knows of a local store. IE autozone pepboys or o'rileys that might carry these parts let me know didn't see anything at autozone nor did I expect to.

[Triathlete]

Just to be straight...
the knuckle and the hub are two totally different things. The knuckle is the part shown in PK's pic with the spindle and bearings. The hub is the splined disc and cap that has the 6 allen head bolts holding it on. Will make your parts search a bit easier.

[Y33TREKker]

Agreed that the knuckle/spindle bearing could probably just be replaced as opposed to buying an entire new/used knuckle/spindle assembly.

Plus, the one you'll be getting from the Trooper will have a used bearing too.

Granted, you'd probably have to remove your current knuckle/spindle assembly anyway to have a new bearing pressed in (and thrust washer and oil seal installed), but if you're going through all that trouble of removing it anyway, ending up with a new bearing would be best as a while-you're-in-there kind of thing.