Front Bearing Hub Po Installation Techniques

In the past few weeks I have found three different Jeeps with improperly installed bearing hubs. The order of the components is all over the place. None of the lock washers were prperly set. Two of these were recently put together by "professional shops" I guess general mechanical knowledge is getting rare. Two of these Jeeps had a loose nut on a rear axle! For anyone that has a new to them Jeep, take a morning with a factory service manual and inspect the rolling parts of your Jeep. While there also check out the brake components and lines. One of these had all new brakes but a brake line had actually rusted through. Also***Today's grease DOES NOT liquify when warm like grease did 70 years ago. No need to fill the bearing hub with grease***

 

Based on "lock washers properly set" I am going to guess the large spindle nuts on the front that set the bearing load and hold the wheel on. Pretty important to get that series of nuts and washers on correctly.

 

I bought a decent jeep for $100 once because the owner gave up. He couldn't get it to go straight down the road. I shook the front end, paid him, then pulled the hubs off to tighten the (single!) nuts in his driveway and drove it home with no issues. The lock nuts and all the washers were missing.

 

No, the nut on the rear tapered axle. It looks like someone just put it tight enough to line up the cotter pin and called it good. Had to replace one hub because it wallowed out the keyway from being loose.

 

When I bought my Jeepster, the PO had given up on the brakes. He said it had low pedal after a couple drives no matter how many times he replaced the master and bled the brakes. The adjusters were on opposite sides of the car. That jeep had the cleanest brake fluid I've ever seen!

 

At the shop I work at, we recently had a Mack truck in that they figured out how to keep the wheel bearing nuts from coming loose.....by welding them to the spindle!
I'm talking a full bead all the way around!
Oh and this was on the rear axle where the spindle is part of the housing....

 

Same nuts from 1942 to 1986.

 

I'm just used to chisels being the main tool used to adjust and set the front bearings. Well, I've also seen evidence of the same chisel being used on the rear axle nut too!
-Donny

 

I had to use the sander to clean off the chisel marks so the socket would fit on right.

 

Worked on 3 different old CJs today. Up to my ears in projects. Did get time to drive two different high hoods though.