Re: [MV] A wheel bearing warning for CUCV owners...

From: Royce C Hayes (rc_hayes1@juno.com)
Date: Sat Apr 05 2003 - 03:25:26 PST


I had a similar experience with a Civi. K 5 Blazer. It had high mileage
when I purchased it, with bad brakes and a bad pull when stopping. I had
a brake shop to do the brake job. When they pulled the left hub off, all
the bearings fell out onto the floor. I have never seen that before!
They put a new set of bearings and races in and I never had that problem
again.

Royce
=================================
On Fri, 4 Apr 2003 23:29:30 -0700 "Nathan Wilkens"
<nathan.wilkens@asu.edu> writes:
> I spent the a chunk of the last two days servicing the front brakes
> and
> wheel bearings on my M1009 CUCV. Although the braking seemed fine,
> I began
> to hear a high pitch squeal from my right front wheel that would go
> away
> when I lightly held the brake pedal. Also, my truck pulled really
> hard to
> the right whenever I hit the brakes hard - so I had it aligned twice
> in the
> last year, and was told that since I have different brand tires on
> the front
> left and right, that I should live with the braking pull (seemed a
> little
> weird to me since both tires are the same size). I had also noticed
> that
> the steering seemed pretty loose, but I chalked that up to a worn
> out
> steering box....
>
> So, yesterday I opened up the front hubs for the annual bearing
> repack (my
> first on this truck since I bought it a year ago), and after I
> removed the
> locking hub pieces, I reached my finger in the hub to remove excess
> grease,
> and with the blob of nasty grease came the outerbearing nut, lock
> nut, AND
> the inner lock... The only thing holding my front right wheel on was
> about
> the last five turns on the bearing retainer nut (the lock ring and
> outer
> retainer nuts had already come off). Now, strangely, the truck
> didn't act
> at all like one of the front wheels was about to fall off, and all
> the
> symptoms I had could easily have been found on any high mile truck.
> Another
> thing that was strange was the nuts and lock ring combination was
> for the
> 5/4 ton axles, even though my 86 M1009 has the 3/4 ton axles. The
> big
> problem was that the lock ring had been installed backwards, with
> the
> retaining pin facing the nut without the retaining pin holes....
>
> Anyway, the reason I bring this up, other than for the obvious
> safety
> reasons, is to point out to anyone who owns a CUCV and hasn't done a
> wheel
> aring service - that it is really, really easy to do (don't waste
> your
> money at a brake shop) although it is really, really messy (I went
> through
> five rolls of paper towels). The job really doesn't take long if
> you have a
> couple of inexpensive specialty tools (a special socket for the lock
> nuts,
> the GM allen wrench for removing brake caliper bolts if you are
> doing
> brakes, a small screwdriver, a snapring pliers, a bunch of brake
> clean, and
> that's pretty much it). I had a badly scored rotor on the right
> side
> (causing the pull) and a badly worn rotor on the left side, so I had
> to wait
> to finish until this morning when the new rotors arrived at my local
> Checker
> Auto parts store. So, after spending only $140 for parts and
> supplies, I
> have two new rotors, premium brake pads, even better braking power
> with no
> pull, no slop in the steering, greatly reduced low-order harmonic
> vibration,
> and the knowledge of a job well done..
>
> Incidentally, I used a commercial paint stripping compound to remove
> the
> desert tan paint from the front hubs so that I could repaint them
> black
> (yes, they were originally black). My 'baby' sure looks sharp now!
>
> Now... to decide if I'm up to replacing a valve cover gasket for
> tomorrow
> morning... Anyone have any words of experience on replacing the left
> valve
> cover gasket on a 6.2L diesel? My landlord is thinking about
> repaving the
> parking lot and doesn't want my slight 'drip' to mess up his new
> asphalt
> (heathen!)...
>
> Nathan Wilkens
> 86 M1009
>



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