Yet another Wheel Bearing Thread

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:52 am

Using the info on other threads I'm pretty sure my passenger wheel bearing is bad. With the links to the 'how to's' I'm pretty sure I can tackle the job with no problems. However, I still have two questions.

1. What do you think of these hub assemblies on Ebay? They have the same part number as the Timken and DYNAPAK hubs I've found in the $130 to $180 price range. Has anybody bought any of these?EBAY

2. I have access to a press. Its hard to tell from the pictures but is this bearing something I can just press in and out of the hub assembly and save the $$ of the whole assembly?

Post by **HenryJ** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 7:16 am

1. Check the price locally. Warranty service close by may be an advantage. Check to see if the new unit comes with a new sensor. The ebay unit may not. They are half the price, but I wonder if there is a reason?

2. A press will not be of help. These are a double caged bearing/hub assembly.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:49 pm

I'm thinking no go on the ebay ones. I asked "what is the brand name of the bearing and does it come with the anti-lock brake sensor" Here is the reply.

OE BRAND IS THE MAKE IF TE OEM HUB HADA ENSOR THIS ONE DOES ALSO

Post by **HenryJ** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:06 pm

The mastery of the English language does not impress me.
I would be a little nervous as well. I am still curious though. I suspect that they may never see the product. They just drop ship from a foreign marketer?

WVHogRider · Post by **WVHogRider** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:45 am

IMHO, I'd go with the Valucraft wheel bearing at Autozone for $110 with a 3 month warranty before I would buy the Ebay one.

WVHogRider · Post by **WVHogRider** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:38 am

Forgot to add that I now need to replace my passenger side WB. I'll probably go with the $140 one from Autozone.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:08 am

Well I swapped out the wheel bearing with the $140 autozone one. I was tempted to have autozone order the tiemkin $180 one but decided to give the off brand a try. I looked like decent build quality and the swap out took about 2 hours of work. There was a trip back to autozone to buy a 36mm deep well. I had a 36mm craftsman in my set but it was not deep enough to go over the end of the axle shaft.

Wow that bearing had been making a lot of noise. The truck is way quieter now.

Of course I'm sure a new noise will develop to take its place ..

Jigg · Post by **Jigg** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 12:32 pm

FWIW, I now carry S-10 bearings made by wheel bearings inc. They retail for $160 at Summit... I'm selling them for $92.95 shipped.

ZR2USA Thread

I'm working on a page to retail them on my site.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 12:49 pm

AHHHHHH.. oh well.. whats $45... just a tank of gass. I'll try and remember you when the drivers side goes out.

WVHogRider · Post by **WVHogRider** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:48 am

And I just bought the $140 one from Autozone yesterday, and installed it.

However, as daevans315 said

AHHHHHH.. oh well.. whats $45... just a tank of gas. I'll try and remember you when the drivers side goes out.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:19 am

Guess what.. I get to do this job AGAIN!!

ABS light came on and it appears to be the passengers wheel sensor. At least its still under warranty.

Jigg · Post by **Jigg** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:35 am

FWIW, you don't have to replace the entire thing, you can replace just the sensor.

Snoman002 · Post by **Snoman002** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:57 am

Jigg wrote:FWIW, you don't have to replace the entire thing, you can replace just the sensor.

What? How, I thought it was sealed into the hub. I know the earlier trucks ~95 had the sensor seperate from the hub, but I was not aware that the sensor alone could be replaced on the later trucks.

It would save me some bucks as I have a bad wire on my Bravada and no matter what I do the twisting from turning the wheel seperates all my repair jobs.

Jigg · Post by **Jigg** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:22 am

The sensor bolts into the hub with an allen head bolt. You'll need to take the caliper and rotor off to get to it, but you can just remove the bolt and pull the sensor out. Then remove the rest of the bolts that hold it to the A-arm and unclip it at the frame.

Reverse the steps with your old sensor and you're good to go.

I have a new bearing at home, i can take a picture of what i'm talking about if you'd like.

Snoman002 · Post by **Snoman002** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:55 am

Jigg wrote:The sensor bolts into the hub with an allen head bolt. You'll need to take the caliper and rotor off to get to it, but you can just remove the bolt and pull the sensor out. Then remove the rest of the bolts that hold it to the A-arm and unclip it at the frame.

Reverse the steps with your old sensor and you're good to go.

I have a new bearing at home, i can take a picture of what i'm talking about if you'd like.

That would be great, if you don't mind. I guess I have never really looked at the bearing, I just remember the wire going into the hub.

I have not searched yet, but where would one get just the sensor?

Also, would it be possible to grease the hub with the sensor removed? Might not be a bad idea to squirt some new grease in these things every once in a while if possible.

Jigg · Post by **Jigg** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:12 am

You can buy them from GM for $75. You can get one off of somebody who replaced their bearing and still has the old one sitting around. You can also just buy an entire new bearing and replace just the sensor until the bearing on your truck goes.

Not sure about greasing the hub.... i'll have to look at it closer.

I'll take a pic of that tonight for you.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:53 am

I just spoke with autozone. No problem doing a warranty refund on a 'new' bearing with the 'old' sensor. So.. off to autozone to buy a bearing just to return the sensor. I'll try and take some pic's but it won't be till the weekend.

Jigg · Post by **Jigg** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:56 am

Good deal, less of a hassle for you.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:06 am

Snoman002 wrote:
Also, would it be possible to grease the hub with the sensor removed? Might not be a bad idea to squirt some new grease in these things every once in a while if possible.

The autozone guy read me their procedure for swapping the sensor separately from the bearing. It stated multiple times not to pry the sensor out with a screw driver or to put anything down the open hole. I would be a little afraid of putting more grease in there. Both because you might screw up the sensor read and because of grease incompatibility(unlikely but it can happen)

Snoman002 · Post by **Snoman002** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:20 am

daevans315 wrote:
Snoman002 wrote:
Also, would it be possible to grease the hub with the sensor removed? Might not be a bad idea to squirt some new grease in these things every once in a while if possible.
The autozone guy read me their procedure for swapping the sensor separately from the bearing. It stated multiple times not to pry the sensor out with a screw driver or to put anything down the open hole. I would be a little afraid of putting more grease in there. Both because you might screw up the sensor read and because of grease incompatibility(unlikely but it can happen)

That probably answers my question.

I thought it was doubtfull that the reluctor ring actually sat in the grease, but you never know.

Hmm, $75 for a sensor. Thats a little steep, I guess I will try the used route. It's too bad I didn't keep the old bearing, oh well, live and learn.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:59 am

This is maybe a ABS question now but its still related. I pulled the wheel off and immediately saw the problem with the ABS sensor. The wire was broken right at the first hold down clip. I thought I had it ran exactly the same way as the other side with the same amount of slack but I must not have gotten it right or got something up in there to put to much stress on it.

Any way... I looked at it and decided to solder it instead of pulling the whole sensor off. I cut the remaining wire, removed the outer shield for a ways and soldered both wires back covered each individual wire with heat shrink tubing and then put a double heat shrink over them both as a shield. Put everything back together. Still have a ABS light with the same code. 220? I think.. Passenger side sensor open to long.

Will this go away eventually or do I need to reset it. My ODB-2 tool will read the ABS codes but I don't see a place to reset them. The 'normal' reset does not clear them or turn off the light.

Snoman002 · Post by **Snoman002** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:09 am

My recomendation, replace the sensor.

I just went through this with our Bravada, and no matter how well you do it, it will eventually break again. Once the integrity of the cable is gone you can't get it back. If your fix is too soft it will break the solder, if it's to stiff it will put to much stress on another part of the cable and it will break there.

The biggest part of this is you don't know what will happen. I had mine break again and instead of turning on the ABS light the ABS became WAY to sensitive, in fact they would engage on dry tar, even blew a stop light because of it.

Replace the sensor!

But to answer your question, the ABS light should go out right away (assuming you did the repair with the truck off).