Superduty unit bearing life

CasterTroy

CasterTroy

Faster'N You
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Wallburg
What's a reasonable life expectancy (mileage) of the unit bearings in a 2005> 4x4 superduty (manual hubs)
 
150-200k ish

Mine needed new ones at 300k, so I don't know if they lasted 100k or 150k, or maybe 200k, and then were replaced with cheapos that didn't make it more than 100k miles.
 
Had them replaced in our work truck at around 250k. We got it with 150k on it.
 
I'll bump this back up since mine seem to have shit the bed. Or at least I think they have. I'm right at 200k on a 1999 F250 SD. I've seen lots of different places that have unit bearing replacements (eliminator kits) but what's the consensus on these? Is it better to put in the upgraded stuff or run OEM since it obviously made it 200k?
 
Changed my first set at on my 2003 6.0 at 420,000. Only the left one was bad kept the right one for a spare. Truck has 520,000 on it now. I was impressed with the life of the OEM unit bearing.
 
My assumption was when "bad", they begin growling? Or there's slop? Or is it just the fawking ABS light stays on?

So, how do you know they're good or bad?
 
Not sure about the Ford unit bearings but there was an article I read a while back in regards to the Dodge unit bearing where a guy had drilled and tapped a grease fitting on the top and then drilled an access hole on the top of the knuckle. Claimed it kept them from going bad for way longer.... it would seem it is a crap shoot for oem/parts house. I put a set of timkens in my truck and one went bad again right at 10k miles. Warrantied it and put another 100k before I sold it with no issues.
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I've seen an adapter sold for the Ford bearings where you unbolt the and sensor, put the adapter there pump it full of grease then reinstall the and sensor.

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The factory ones I took out of this 2006 axle had 210k on them and were still alright, but I replaced them anyway. It stayed muddy almost all of its previous life too, so I'm good with them. It's a helluva lot cleaner to replace a unit bearing than to have to grease regular bearings...plus, at 1800-2000 for the conversion setup, I could buy 10 Timken hub bearings for this thing at 190 a piece from Rock Auto. If they lasted 100k each, I'd have almost 1,250,000 miles on my truck by the time the last set crapped out.

If you don't want to bother with the adapter, just pull the ABS sensor out, have someone spin the hub, and shoot 5 or 6 shots of grease in the hub every once in a while. The tone ring will drag it around....better than nothing and it's free!
 
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