Fried rear wheel bearing on the dually

I had a reputable shop put new gears in the rear end of my 98 Dodge dually sometime last winter, I don't remember exactly when without getting out the papers. I decided on new gears and bearings in the pumpkin. Cost me a bundle but at least I know what I have. Go forward to two days ago when I drove it in the yard, turned, stopped, put it in reverse, and no movement. Let the clutch out and nothing. Got out, walked around to the drivers side and the drivers side duals were half way out from under the flatbed. The wheel bearing was in pieces and burned blue. This thing has maybe 1000 miles on it since the rear end job. I picked the rear of the pickup up with the loader and a chain and pushed it in the shop. Pulled the right axle out and it was bone dry all the way in to the pumpkin. After I got everything off the right side, including torching the outer race, I moved over to the driver's side. Everything was bone dry there too. The bearings were dry and so was the axle tube and shaft. I pulled the fill plug on the pumpkin and the oil was maybe 3/4" below the hole. I'm thinking when they put this thing together they just filled the pumpkin and shoved it out the door without tipping the pickup to one side and then the other or overfilling through the vent to flow oil out into the tubes. There are no leaks. The pinion seal is dry and the wheel hubs were dry inside so nothing was getting away. I had thought about having it towed back to the shop that did the diff work but it needed rear brakes bad so this gave me the chance to do that job myself. And if they would balk on this and not honor their work I'd be out the towing bill besides the parts. I've done business with this place for many years off-and-on and haven't had any trouble with them in the past so I'm going to gather up all the dark blue colored parts, and my bill for the bearings and go have a chat with them. I did take pics with the cell phone, showing the dark blue axle. The bluing is only on the surface so I don't think the axle is weakened. Four bearings and two seals didn't cost me all that much and it was time for brakes anyway so it's not worth getting in a big huff when I talk to them. They have done me some favors in the past. I'm not ranting here. Just letting off steam! Jim
Oh yes, the teflan lined self locking 2" fine thread nuts that go on the end of the rear spindles were $55.00 APIECE and it was hard to find a Dodge dealer that had any. I was lucky and only had to drive 65 miles to Fort Dodge to get them. That dealer had these two nuts on the shelf for 8 years. I'll betcha that $55 was TODAY'S price.

I think you have it figured out. When I do a rear end I lift one
side at a time and leave it up for a good 15 minutes each.
Then I top off afterwards.

Casey in SD

Oh, I didn't mention I twisted my son's floor jack by putting it under the pumpkin, lifting, putting a block under one rear wheel and then letting it down. Now this job is costing me a new floor jack for my son. The $ for accessories to the job is adding up. LOL Jim

Don't think the nuts are self locking.The little clip you drive end locks it. They do come out if bearing starts turning the nut. Spec is 1/2 " below fill plug.

There was a clip only on the driver's side. Is there suppose to be one on the passenger side too? It's right hand threads. Jim

Yes and I pack the bearings in grease.

Good advise from casey ! In the shop I worked in, we did that to everything w/full floaters, including the semi"s. We had a pile of dirt behind the shop just for that. (hard to do a semi tractor on jacks.) 15 min. per side, top off the diff"s.

Boy, I learned something here. I've worked on a variety of stuff over the years, but never heard of lifting full floating axles on each side upon re-filling with oil.

Hats off to the experts. Thank you for sharing your expertise.


Glenn F.

SOME axle assemblies have a sort of trough that directs oil spun up by the ring gear into the side bearings on the differential, and, probably into the axle tubes, as well. (Think Tyvoda had some sort of problems in that area, several years back, for example.)

Certain axles have a lube hole in the back face of the center section that allows oil to get into the axle tubes, as well. A "wrench" that gets too carried away with silicone sealant on the back cover could possibly plug up the lube channels.

I would GUESS your axle is a DANA 65, and I'm NOT sure, off hand, if any of this applies, but it might be worth checking out, 'cuz I think, in a thousand miles some oil SHOULD have worked it's way out to the wheel bearings, though I DO agree with the other guys about helping it along a bit.

I went thru this on a pinion bearing.

If they put in the cheap Chinese bearings......

Allan

Yeah, $55 a piece for the nuts, and there should be that little clip that drives in the keyway on BOTH sides, I like to renew them also. My '98 Dodge has a Dana 80.

The clip on the passenger side had probably fallen out and was ground up in the bearing. The plastic was burned off the nut so it probably set the clip free. I'm going to talk to shop about the oil holes possibly being plugged with sealer. Thanks for all the advice. Jim

Last dually I replaced bearings in was 17 years ago, a ford box van, I'm not sure but I recall the bearings running in grease and some kind of seal keeping oil out of the axle tubes that you had to try and get the axle shaft through when reassembling.

I think you had some failure other than lubrication. If it was lube, I would think you would have damage to both sides. I have a Dodge D-250 with the same axle arrangement and I have been in it 2 or 3 times and never tilted the truck to il the bearings; I just packed the bearings in grease. It has over 300,000 miles on the original bearings. The nuts are available from NAPA; not sure of part number.

I have seen rear wheel bearings burn up because no lube in hub, Always fill the hub and wipe little lube on the seal just before sliding on the axle. Also I always use a torque wrench tighten the nuts and preload them turning the wheel then back off and re torque the axle nuts. Big trucks and trailers was pre load to 100lbs back off and retighten to 50 loosen little so lock lines up. Never had one fail but have seen others over tighten the axle nuts and it takes out the bearing. Another thing the bearing companies said was not to wash your bearing unless you get it dirty. They had us wrap then in a shop rag after looking to see if they were not worn to keep the blowing sand or dirt off them. Worked for a major truck barn for over 30 years doing it. I'm sure other people have their way of doing it, but just sharing something I had learn years ago that works for me.

I got the new bearings at Napa but they couldn't seem to find the nut in their books. Could be Napa does carry this nut but the parts man didn't know where to look. This bearing that failed was on the 'downhill' side of the pickup as the crown of the road goes so it would carry a little more load. It should theoretically have more oil to it since it's on the downhill side IF there's oil available. The bearings on the drivers side were so bone dry I'm surprised they aren't blue. The races on the drivers side were brown and starting to pit. Jim