Did the front universals on my 2500. I have a Dana 60 axle and kinda followed pavement sucks description on how to do it. On the 60 the front bearings are held in with four bolts vice three. This truck sees a lot of saltwater. The disc were tough to get off. I needed a wheel puller. The passenger side bearing split apart. The left side came off normally but still needed a puller. I don't know how this truck drove. My left u-joint was impossible to move as if in a turn. I'm amazed I didn't break something severely. The u-joint clips were very difficult to knock off. I hit them with the smoke wrench just to warm them up for some movement. Work great. Knock off the right knuckle ball joints with crowbar pressure and four whacks of a lump. The left side need some light heating twice and was hammer into submission. The final blow was on the lower ball joint nut. Got to be careful or you will be cutting the ball joint stud if the thread gets messed up. All in all the job was done solo except for the crowbar pressure. One question, has anyone had the front axle bearing separate and was it alright to press it back together?

 

im almost sure you should just get another bearing. kind pricy but id rather be safe.

 

You can press it back in. There are some guys on the diesel forums that have serviced their "non-serviceable" hubs If it were me, I'd probably get a new hub though. If it's original, it's going to fail eventually [:'(]

 

When it split. It looked like a normal 2WD front wheel bearing but the bearing stayed in the rotor and the race stayed in the hub. I replaced the bearing hub bolts half way into the hub and with a 9/16 twelve point and extension used the power steering to press the race out. The only way I could get the rotor off was with a puller. I think this maybe a common occurance especially with all the saltwater we go through. To tell you the truth I wouldn't mind being able to split it and pack it. The only thing I worry about is the resealing of the bearing. It was actually easy to press it back in. I'm going to ride on it for awhile. Its easy enough to get back off now that I cleaned and greased the hub. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't not split the next time I take it off. The hardest part of the job believe it or not was taking the clip off the u-joint. Lucky for me, my best friend owns a topshelf diesel shop with all the tools and toys. Unfortunately, he's a Ferd person. But its hot F250 diesel. He said he would replace it.