What am I doing wrong with front wheel bearings

[Thomas792]

My son and I finally swapped a reconditioned front axle into my Grand Wagoneer. The axle is from a mid 80's J10 and everything bolted up pretty well. I left the hubs and rotors off of it to save a little weight for when we were handling it.

I had bearings I purchased several years ago for the hub (inner and outer along with the inner race). We packed the bearings, installed the inner race and bearing then put the seal on the backside of the hub. The bearing would not seat onto the spindle deep enough to allow the outer bearing on and the spindle nuts. Took everything apart and checked the bearing. It was the correct bearing (104949) and matched the one I took out. It would only slip onto the spindle when very carefully lining it up and in one specific way. No matter what we tried it would not go on.

Out of frustration I tried the old bearing and it slipped on but was not loose. The bearing itself seemed fine but it was used and did not match all my other fresh parts. I put the old bearing in the inner race and put the seal back on. The driver side sits in nicely and allows the outer bearing into the correct place. When I put on the spindle nut with the bump, the lock washer with the holes, then the smooth spindle nut all torqued down I can still see about two or three threads on the spindle.

On the passenger side, however, even using the old bearing it does not seem to sit onto the spindle far enough. When the spindle nuts and washer are installed I can see two threads or so of the outer spindle nut that did not make it onto the spindle. The drive gear (splined to connect the hub and the stub axle) barely has enough room for the snap ring to be installed.

Are there different length spindles and the axle I bought came miss matched? What am I doing wrong?

[Stuka]

Do you have a micrometer? If so, it would be good to measure the new and old bearing/race. I have seen cases where the new bearings are slightly under/over sized enough to cause a build of up tolerances. Another cause is the spindle can have a rust ring on it that will prevent the bearing from seating all the way. I have had to use emery cloth to knock it down to allow the bearing to push all the way in. Its possible the seal is also not allowing it to seat.

And just as a note, in case you did not know this. A J10 axle is significantly wider than a GW axle. Especially the rear axle. If you don't have a lift, your tires are going to rub the fenders as they will be pushed to be under it, rather than inside of it.

[Thomas792]

Thanks for the suggestion. These are Timken bearings so I thought they would be spot on. I’ll mic the bearing and race next weekend. I believe the seal pushed in to the area it was supposed to be riding on as my fingers felt the same amount of gap between the spindle nut and the back of the hub. I used a scotch brite pad to clean the spindle nice and shiny. I think I’ll measure the length of the spindle too. Just at a real loss for why the passenger side is so difficult.

I know the axle widths are different. Going to install some modest flares in the future after some slight body trimming and wheel well mods.

[teking]

I used to bake my bearings in the oven for my BMW. made them easier to slide on. Just a thought.

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