99' Front Wheel bearings making noise again!

[jvmagic]

Hi,

My front wheel bearings were making a noise so I replaced both sets and greased them accordingly with a great packer etc...
About 4 months later and my driver-side wheel bearing started making a humming noise once again. I re-tightened the nut and that seemed to work (no more noise) and about 1 month later the humming noise returns. I'm thinking that I may have forgotten to install something that keeps the nut from loosening up. Could this be? Is there a wheel bearing diagram somewhere on-line that I can look at to confirm?
Any other thoughts or ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[2000eb]

if i recall there is a cotter pin that goes through the nut. might be wrong i have pulled the front end apart a few times almost everything has a cotter pi. it has been awhile though. pull the tire off and look at the nut that may be your problem.

 

[Thermo]

jvmagic, not to ask a silly question, but did you replace the race too when you did the bearings? If you don't replace the race, yes, that can lead to a bearing failing again in a short period of time. After that, it may be just that you got a bad bearing. Since you are talking about a bearing, I am assuming you have a 2wd Expy. The AWD Expys have a hub assembly. A little bit of a different monster.

 

[jvmagic]

@ Thermo,
I did replace the race as well. The funny thing is that if I re-tighten the nut, the noise goes away meaning the nut becomes loose.
Any other thoughts?

 

[walnuts4x4]

is there a hole in the nut for a cotter pin? or in the shaft?

 

[jvmagic]

@Walnuts4x4,
There is a cotter pin...I wonder if I did put it through both the nut and other nut cover (not sure of the exact technical term for this odd looking nut cover).
Thanks.

 

[Thermo]

jvmagic, I would pull the rotor off and take a good look at the race and make sure that it is still smooth. If the nut seems to always back itself off, then I would recommend using some red loc-tite on the nut to make sure it doesn't back off. The only "downside" to using the red loc-tite is that the next time you go to remove the spindle nut, you MUST!!!! use heat to weaken the loc-tite else you are going to be breaking breaker bars trying to get that nut off. TRUST ME!!!!! The red stuff is good. Almost too good. But, if you have a problem with the nut backing off, this WILL correct it.

 

[toms89]

The cottor pin should go through the shaft + slots in the retainer nut and keep it from backing off. This is necessary because you cannot torque the nut down for obvious reasons.

Install the following components:
Install the retainer nut.
Install a new cotter pin.
Install the hub grease cap.

 

[toms89]

If you have microsoft word I can email you the entire sequence from my service manual CD. The proper torque down sequence for the spindle is long. Hopefully the bearings have not been damaged?! Just PM me you email addr.