Installation of the Front Wheel Bearings on a 2003 Ford F350 Two-Wheel Drive 7.3 Diesel

The wheel is one of the few inventions to last thousands of years with little change. Most experts believe the Mesopotamians an early Middle-Eastern civilization invented the wheel around 3500 B.C. Roughly 500 years later, wheels saw use in transportation, as Greeks used them on their chariots. In modern use, wheels move much faster than the Mesopotamians could have ever imagined and bearings are used to keep friction to a minimum. Installing the wheel bearings on the front of a 2003 two-wheel-drive F-350 typically requires a special tool a slide hammer to remove the inner bearing, but there is a trick for getting it out without that tool.

Instructions

1

Loosen the F-350s front lug nuts with a ratchet and socket. Raise the front of the truck with a floor jack and slide jack stands under the Fords frame rails. Lower the pickup onto the jack stands. Remove the lug nuts and pull the front wheels off the truck.

2

Loosen the caliper pins with a ratchet and socket, and pull them from the caliper notice the pins have a threaded section and a smooth section. Lift the caliper off its bracket and hang it from the upper control arm with a bungee cord or similar. Do not allow the caliper to hang by the hose.

3

Pull the brake pads off the caliper bracket. Remove the two bolts securing the caliper bracket with a ratchet and socket. Pull the caliper bracket off the F-350s steering knuckle.

4

Pry the grease cap the dome-like cap from the center of the rotor with a flat-head screwdriver. Pull the cotter pin from the spindle shaft with needle-nose pliers discard the cotter pin. Pull the adjuster nut cover the castled metal cover off the spindle. Remove the wheel bearing adjuster nut with a ratchet and socket, and pull the washer off the spindle shaft.

5

Grab the rotor and pull it away from the truck to disengage the outer wheel bearing. Pull the outer wheel bearing off the spindle shaft.

6

Reposition the rotor back onto the spindle and tighten the wheel bearing adjuster nut onto the spindle shaft about three or four turns. Pull the rotor toward you with a slight downward motion until you feel the adjuster nut hit resistance this is the inner wheel bearing. Pull outward on the rotor firmly and sharply to disengage the wheel bearing and its seal from the rear of the rotor, and remove the rotor from the spindle.

7

Remove the wheel bearing adjuster nut, then pull the inner wheel bearing and grease seal off the spindle shaft.

8

Set the rotor face down and position a drift punch on the inside edge of the outer race. Tap around the circumference of the race with the drift punch and a hammer until it falls out of the center of the rotor.

9

Flip the rotor over and set it on two 2-inch-tall blocks of wood, so the rotor is suspended off the ground -- this allows clearance for the inner race. Position the drift on the edge of the inner race, so it touches the edge of the race nearest to the center of the rotor, and tap around the edge of the race with the drift and a hammer until the race falls out.

10

Clean the inside of the rotor thoroughly, paying special attention to the channels that hold the two bearing races.

11

Select a race driver from the race driver kit that fits snugly into the inner part of the rotor's center hole. Position a new outer race -- included with the inner bearing -- onto the center hole, with the tapered side facing you, and push it into the hole as far as you can by hand. Set the race driver on the race and drive the race into the rotor by tapping the top of the driver with a hammer until the race seats into the rotor. When the race is fully seated, you will hear a distinct change in the sound of your tapping -- from "dink" to "thunk."

12

Flip the rotor over and select a race driver that fits snugly into the outer part of the rotor's center hole. Position a new outer race -- included with the new outer bearing -- on the center hole, tapered side facing you, and press it into the hole as far as it will go by hand. Set the race driver on top of the outer race and tap the top of the driver with a hammer to drive the race into the rotor until the race seats into place.

13

Fill a bearing packers reservoir with wheel bearing grease, until the level reaches the Max or Full line. Set a new wheel bearing in the grease in the packers reservoir and use the packers plunger to force grease into the bearing packer designs vary slightly, so read the packers instructions thoroughly for specifics. Remove the bearing, then repeat this step to pack the other bearing with grease.

14

Set the inner wheel bearing in the hole on the rear of the rotor. Position a new grease seal over the new bearing and seat it using a grease seal driver and a hammer. Never try to drive in a grease seal without the grease seal driver, as you increase your risk of installing it cocked to one side, which can result in severe bearing and spindle damage later on.

15

Set the rotor on the spindle and guide the outer bearing onto the spindle shaft tapered end first and into the hole in the center of the rotor. Guide the washer onto the spindle shaft and onto the outer wheel bearing.

16

Hand tighten the wheel bearing adjuster nut onto the spindle. Spin the brake rotor clockwise while tightening the adjuster nut to 21 foot-pounds with a torque wrench and socket. Loosen the adjuster nut 180 degrees with a ratchet and socket, then tighten it to 1 to 2 foot-pounds with a torque wrench and socket.

17

Guide the adjuster nut cover back onto the spindle, so one of the valleys in its castled top lines up with the hole through the spindle shaft. Insert a new cotter pin through the valley in the adjuster nut cover and through the hole in the spindle shaft. Bend the straight ends of the cotter pin in opposite directions to lock the pin in place. If necessary, tighten -- don't loosen -- to align the next hole.

18

Set the caliper bracket on the steering knuckle and hand-tighten its two retaining bolts. Tighten the bolts to 166 foot-pounds with a torque wrench and socket. Slide the brake pads into the caliper bracket.

19

Wipe the old grease off the smooth part of each caliper pin with a clean, lint-free cloth. Apply a liberal coat of new disc brake grease to the smooth part of each pin do not get grease on the threaded part.

20

Set the caliper on the bracket and insert the caliper pins into the caliper. Tighten the caliper pins to 42 foot-pounds with a torque wrench and socket.

21

Repeat Steps 2 through 19 to replace the wheel bearings on the other side of the F-350, if needed.

22

Reinstall the front wheels on the truck and hand-tighten the lug nuts. Raise the F-350 off the jack stands with a floor jack and remove the jack stands. Lower the truck to the ground. Tighten the lug nuts, in a crisscross pattern, to 155 foot-pounds with a torque wrench and socket.