Need to Pull drive wheel and replace Bearings

[Jim Eh.]

After driving in the seal & inner bearing, re-installing the hub onto the axle stub and BEFORE installing the outer bearing - pre charge the oil cavity that is between the bearings in the hub with the same gear oil that you are using in your differential. After you are all finished doing one/both sides, raise the axle on one side for about 5 minutes, then lower and raise the opposite side of the axle for about 5 minutes. This will ensure you have oil in the hubs. After letting it down to level and letting it sit for about 5 minutes, double check the differential oil level and top up as req'd.

One other item, clean or replace the diff vent!

[Aaron]

Several ways to go about this,leave the tires and wheels on and slide them out with the drum and hub, on  a piece of oiled tin,but I don't recomend it,its a pain to install everything and get proper torque on the axle nuts.
So placed on a sturdy jack stand or blocks after being jacked up,remove tires and wheels,this will require a 1" air gun and wheel nut sockets.
Remove axle nuts,smack axle flange with sledge hammer a couple times it should come loose from the hub,some axles have split cones in a few holes spaced around the axle,you may need to place  a screw driver in the slot to work them off the stud.
Look to see if the drum is held on the hub with some large screws or if you can tell if it is a outboard drum,if so remove it now so you get rid of extra weight off the hub.
Next the outer axle nut may have a split washer behind it with a tang folded over a flat of the nut,using a small cold chisle push the tang back to the straight up position,use a thin wheel nut socket as stated in an above post to remove the axle nuts,using a cold chisle is a poor way to do this,it leaves chips of metal in the hub and mangles the nut.
When the nuts have been taken off then the hub and drum will come off.
The races can be driven out of the hub with  a long drift punch and a decent size hammer
they can be installed the same way,I like to use a brass drift drive them in a sit won't mar the race as bad  as a steel drift when it slips, putting the races in the freezer for a while before hand helps.

[Mex-Busnut]

Seangie:

Nice Flxible bus! Did you meet the owner?

[bobofthenorth]

Aaron covered a lot of the nitty gritty.  Separating the hub from the brake drum is a needless challenge but handling the combined weight of the drum and hub is a real pain.  There's a tool made specifically for the job - kind of a 2 wheel cart with arms that grab the top of the drum and balance it.  If you can find one of them its well worth your time because separating the drum and hub can be a major pain.  Putting everything back together is dead simple with the wheeled thing - without it, not so much.  I've also been told you can pull the axles leaving the wheels mounted by sliding the whole assembly out on a greased sheet of steel but I've never done that. 

A couple of posters have touched on whacking the end of the axle to get it to pop out of the hub.  Sometimes you really need to hit it hard if it has those little tapered cones holding it in.  I have trouble hitting hard enough without worrying about hitting the ends of the studs but that may just be me.  There's a tool that you can use to pull the little cones but I don't have one - pliers, hammer and a couple of small screwdrivers will do the job too, it just takes longer.  Until they come out the axle won't release - once they're out it will spring free.  Note that if you do have the cones they won't be on every stud so don't spend a bunch of time trying to find them if they don't appear to exist.

[luvrbus]

He won't have the screws to contend with on the drum just back of the slack adjuster they slide off,he will have a plug in the hub to pre charge bearings 1 qt will do both sides.
One place he needs to be careful is were the seal seats it is real easy to bend if hit and will cause the seal to leak.
You can remove the outer lock nut with 2 flat pieces of metal if you don't have the socket the inner nut will come easy,getting the 0.005 clearance Rockwell recommends can be challenging,Bob his Eagle will have those little suckers on all 8 studs

[eagle19952]

That was just a option in the parts book from Eagle Lee he will have oiled hubs 

Again Clifford is right..
i just picked "any" drawing out of "Da Book" so Sean would have an idea of what to expect, Just protect the threads and hit that SOB. This is actually one of those times get a bigger hammer is a good idea.
like whackin some tie rod ends.
if you are doing this on gravel/asphalt do your self a favor and buy a sheet of plywood.

pallet jack, greased board, tire dolly, fork lift.
two guys and a greased plywood, easypeasy

[Aaron]

I forgot about backing the brake off,makes it pretty rough to remove the drum if you don't.
When you have the hub off note the position of the seal in the hub,it should go in almost to the bearing and rest on a land,there are tools to put those large seals in and maybe you could borrow one from the garage you buy the seal from or take the hub with you and have them install the seal and inner bearing and race.
One other thing when you take the outer axle nut off just for grins measure how much tube sticks out past the inner nut,now you have a reference to go to when your installed back to this point, reason being is that when installing the hub with the seal in it you need to walk it up on the spindle,this is where the correct axle nut socket comes into play,those sockets are for use with a 3/4 ratchet,use it or a breaker bar not a 1/2 in set up,tighten the hub on the axle untill you no longer can, turning the hub as you go,now measure the distance from the end of the axle to that inner nut this tells you if you are in the same position as before.
Now back off the inner nut a turn or two turning the drum a little to free it up,in the above procedure the drum may no longer turn as you had it tight,now run it back up fairly snug not near as tight as it was to set the seal,back it off almost a half turn,put the outer nut keeper on and install the outer nut,now the the hub may have some slop to it before tighting the outer nut that slop will be taken up when you tighten the outer nut as this is slop in the axle threads,snug the outer nut pretty good and see if you still have in and out movement of the hub,if there is a very slight movement I would say your good to go,a hair loose is better than a hair tight,some people use  a dial indicator to check this movement I never have,some one here will be able to tell you how to set it up to check.
If you hub has a plug in it and it come out that would be where to put oil in at to charge the bearings,put a qt of thew oil you use in the rear end in it and your good to go,no need to jack up one side of the bus to get oil to flow thru the axle tube to get out there,make sure the rerar end is full up to the plug on the housing and your good to go,don't forget to adjust the brake on that side.
I should have asked this first why do you need to change the bearings did the seal go out and loose oil and smoke them.  
As I stated in my other post taking the complete assembly off as one unit is Ok coming off but when putting it all back together as one large unit it makes it really hard to set up the seal and axle end play when you have all that extra weight on there,thats why I suggested to break the assembly down.

[Seangie]

Ronan, MT?

Yessir.

Seangie:

Nice Flxible bus! Did you meet the owner?

Steve - We did meet the owner his name is Robert.  Its a beautiful bus in good condition.  Nice guy too.



You guys are providing some great information.  Im printing this thread up before I start.  Ill be making a parts list and a tools list before I start and make sure I can find what I need. 

Don - Do you have a copy of that PDF you can send me?  Ive got a printed manual but it seems like the one page I need is missing.  Ive got lots of stuff on replacing the brakes but not anything much on pulling the axle and replacing the bearings.

Thanks again guy - Y'all are awesome.

-Sean

[eagle19952]

Don - Do you have a copy of that PDF you can send me?  Ive got a printed manual but it seems like the one page I need is missing.  Ive got lots of stuff on replacing the brakes but not anything much on pulling the axle and replacing the bearings.

section 15 page 2 +3....

[Seangie]

I should have asked this first why do you need to change the bearings did the seal go out and loose oil and smoke them.  
As I stated in my other post taking the complete assembly off as one unit is Ok coming off but when putting it all back together as one large unit it makes it really hard to set up the seal and axle end play when you have all that extra weight on there,thats why I suggested to break the assembly down.

Aaron -

I'm assuming its the bearings at this point.  Could be anything as I have not yet taken it apart to look at it.  The symptoms are - road sounding noise (grinding maybe?) almost like a faint sound of a twin engine plane in the background. It was consitent with the speed of the wheel. I can feel a very very slight woble almost like a consisten up and down wobble not side to side and the temps on the drivers side drive wheel were about 20-25 degrees hotter than the other hubs.  The heat was felt inside the bus as well wifey shot the floor of the bus and it was 20 degrees hotter on the drivers side over the wheel than on the passenger side.  We don't have much insulation in the bedroom under the floor so all the heat comes right up when we are driving.

-Sean

[eagle19952]

   well here's a few more pennies worth of my thoughts ...

Before I tore into that...
I would pull the the axle and catch all the oil in a small pan (not ferrous metal)
I would run a magnet through it...look for floating silver gray color
I would check the bearing adjustment.....with two (at least) 8 foot pry bars...
I would spin the tires...brakes released...and listen carefully for noise...
I would look at each individual roller in the outer cone....if each roller turns equally and simultaneously as the wheel is turning, I would think they are all good.
Very rarely does a bearing go bad without taking the seal out with it in my experience...

[Seangie]

well here's a few more pennies worth of my thoughts ...

Before I tore into that...
I would pull the the axle and catch all the oil in a small pan (not ferrous metal)
I would run a magnet through it...look for floating silver gray color
I would check the bearing adjustment.....with two (at least) 8 foot pry bars...
I would spin the tires...brakes released...and listen carefully for noise...
I would look at each individual roller in the outer cone....if each roller turns equally and simultaneously as the wheel is turning, I would think they are all good.
Very rarely does a bearing go bad without taking the seal out with it in my experience...

Don - curious as to what else it could be?

I need a bus whisperer

Fulltiming somewhere in the USA
1984 Eagle 10S
www.herdofturtles.org

[eagle19952]

loose brake shoe
rock in the drum
cracked drum
loose wheeel
bent brake backing plate...if you still have them ?
rock stuck in a tire groove
rock embedded in the tire trying to eat it's way into the air...
really 20-25 degrees temp diff is not much...\\

PS believe it or not tire men on big jobs dig rocks out of tires...part of the job.

[Boomer]

Shoulda fixed it here in Vancouver Sean.  I have all the equipment.  Good luck.

[Seangie]

Boomer - No joke.  Next time  

Fulltiming somewhere in the USA
1984 Eagle 10S
www.herdofturtles.org