I was hoping that someone might be able to give me a heads up on what to look out for when I go to repack my wheel bearings on the front end of 2005 Ram 3500 4x4. Any does and dont's would be greatly appreciated. Is the outer castle nut with the cotter pin tightened to a specific torque or does the old method still hold true.

 

I usually torque it to 150 ftlbs back it of a turn, torque to 50ftlbs then back off 1/4 turn. I'd probably be lazy and insted of tearing everything down, use a needle greaser inject grease in between the rollers.

 

Things to look for when inspecting wheel bearings are loose or broken tapered rollers, scored race or roller surfaces, or excessive play in the assembly. The shiny surface of a bearing is specially hardened and should be a uniform color. Hot spots, different color lines or scoring indicate wear through to the softer metal underneath. When replacing bearings always replace everything. Bearings, seals, races and so on, must all be replaced as a matched set. A wheel bearing tool set makes seating in the races and seals a breeze while a solid drift works much better than a screwdriver for batting bearings out of the hub. (As jakebrake said) Over-tightening the axle nut is a common cause of bearing failure. Tighten the nut while spinning the rotor or hub, then loosen it, then use about half as much force as it took to tighten it again.

 

Thanks for the information guys. The instructions that you gave are pretty much what I was going to do. Being a new truck I wasn't sure if something had changed. The owners manual recomends the bearing be done when you replace brake pads which are due now, the truck only has 49,000km/31000 miles. I have seen equipment come out of the factory with very little or no grease sometimes, and at $400 for front wheel bearing I want to ensure that mine have a liberal amount of grease. I have only had the truck for one month and have changed all fluids due to little or no maintenance by the previous owner. PS Love the truck 2005 Ram 3500 Laramie, I will post pictures when I get time to figure out how to post pictures.

 

Better yet, post pics of the whole packing process for someone else to see in the future when THEY need help packing bearings.

Oh yeah .... [sm=welcomesign.gif]

 

Well I went to repack my front wheel bearings with grease today, only to find that I would have to use a puller to get to them. After thinking about it for a bit I decided not to pull the hub off, as the owners manual describes. As this appears to be a sealed unit and would probably due more damage to the seals than good. I later visited the local Dodge dealer who informed me not to repack the front wheel bearings that they are a sealed unit and do not require servicing. If anyone can give me any feed back on their take of this discepancy it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I also read somewhere (either owners manual or service manual) that the front bearings are sealed. Sealed bearings do not require servicing.

 

I also have a 2005 dodge ram 3500 diesel 4X4, and I am trying to replace the break rotors. They do not come off once tire is remove. Tried hitting it with a sledge hammer and they will not budge. Do I have to take wheel bearing assembly off to get rotor off? Also my universal joints are shot, so I have to get to them also.

 

I used a 5lb. sledge it took a few hits. I thought I was going to break the rotors. Cleaned the rust off, now they are ok. The bearings are sealed. No repacking needed. They are not like the old ones. You don't have to take the bearing assembly off.

 

The 4WD trucks have the unit, sealed, bearings can not repack, the 2WD you can.