I finished replacing the wheel seals on my 99 U270 on Saturday. I thought I would give some details that may be helpful to someone thinking they may tackle this job themselves.
I had a wheel seal start leaking on a short trip a few weeks ago. I did a lot of research on my axle. It is a Rockwell (now Meritor) Fg-941 14,600 Lb axle. The seal that was removed was a Stemco Guardian seal. Not sure it was the original or not. It is the type that has a wear ring pressed onto the shoulder of the axle. The seal I replaced it with is a Stemco Voyager( 383-0136 ). It does not use a wear ring so I had to remove the old one. I used a chisel and slowly worked them off the spindle shoulder. After it was removed I had to polish the spindle with some 320 emory cloth strips. I also had to replace a few of the caliper slide pins (KIT 15016) because of pitting. I decided to put helper springs (KIT 15018) on the calipers also because of the suggestion from the manufacturer and many here on the forum. I also decided to put on the modern Stemco Pro-Torq axle nut (448-4836) in place of the double nut system. I did order the Stemco seal installation tool (551-5346 for my seal) which worked well. I made up some guidelines prior to the work and I will post them if they would help anyone. The Stemco video's were very informative and it wasn't very hard just heavy work. Definatly need two people to lift the hub on and off unless you have some sort of lift. If I can answer any questions or be of any help just ask.
Mark
Here is another list I made for the caliper. Kind of basic but it kept me on track.
Mark
Very informative, thanks for posting it, I am sure we will need it sooner or later.
Regards,Irwin
Are you sure you got the right seal. When my seals were replaced they came with a new wear ring to replace the old one. Maybe Stemco has changed something, but why get rid of the wear ring? It's been six years since they were replaced.
Some seals have two parts pushed together with one staying stationary on the spindle and the other rotating with the hub. The seal rides on itself when rotating, thus no wear ring on the spindle
@Mark Nice work, write up and pics! You hit the trifecta. ^.^d
see ya
ken
Excellent, Mark.
Thank you. +1
Neal
Howdy Mark, GREAT write-up!! Thank you for this.
Dave A
I "LIKE" it. Nice write up and pics.
Thanks,
Rick
Excellent description of project and great photos. Well done! I'm not sure it is a job I would want to tackle, but it is very educational to see and understand the steps involved.
I laughed when I read the last line in your instruction sheet: "Install wheel and torque 450-500 Ft lbs". Back in the day, I owned and modified BOTH big domestic hotrods and "Ricers" (hot little import cars). When the "Made in the USA" hotrod set wanted to give the ricers a hard time they wore a T-shirt - it said something like: "Your engine doesn't make enough torque to tighten my nuts"
Jerry, Krush was correct in his explanation. The voyager seal is two parts. It rotates within itself with the part on the spindle shoulder staying stationary. The Stemco Guardian seal that was replaced has the wear ring. You can still get that kind if you want to use them.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Next project is the dash blower. Hopefully I can get some good pictures to post of that project too.
Mark
Mark, Dash blower should not be a big deal. IIRC the blower is a standard 70ish Chevrolet PU blower, On the GV's you loosen the main breaker panel and reach behind it to get the blower out, three or four screws and one wire.You may have to remove more dash stuff to get to your blower. Mark the CLOCK position of the blower so that you don't struggle putting the blower back in.
AND...... After removal you can oil the bushings like the Furnace blower bushings and extends the blowers life.
Gary B
Thanks for the explanation, things change. Nice post and pictures.
I don't know what type of dash fan setup you will end up with on a 99 but the blower on my 98 seems basically impossible to replace without removing the entire dash system.
My fan is also fairly erratic, sometimes it works great and other times not so much or at all. The plastic shroud around the fan is right up against the front of the RV and was cracked in a few places. I think some of the broken plastic had managed to lodge in the fan assembly and I was able to vacuum out the smaller pieces without removing everything. Some self tapping screw, sheetmetal and foil tape was able to seal the cracked shroud mostly back up.
If your unit is completely non functional at this point, have you tried replacing all the relays before you delve deep into the dash. I had a fried relay in the cubby behind the accelerator/brake pedal. You can get a cheap 5 pack which is always nice to have extras.
Amazon.com: AGT (5 Pack) 30/40 AMP Relay Harness Spdt 12V Bosch Style... (http://www.amazon.com/Relay-Harness-Bosch-Style-40AMP-HRNS/dp/B005HFYE1O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423589353&sr=8-1&keywords=relay)
Good luck but I would try everything before I'd try to get to that motor if its anything like mine.
Did you use the free play guide for the bearing adjustment?
If you did is there any "dead" spot in the steering?
My expert Foretravel mechanic preloads the bearings or he says you get a wander.
Let us know
Very nice write up, Mark.
Thanks for taking the time to detail the steps.
Should be very helpful for future job.
Jim
Bob,
I set up the drivers side with .003 and the passengers side with .002. No noticeable difference in steering play at all. I forgot about letting you know about that.
Mark
Thanks for the input Robert, Mine stopped working at all a few months ago. I have not even begun to troubleshoot yet. I appreciate the suggestions.
Mark
Before tearing things apart, make sure you apply 12v directly to the motor to see if it works. There is the dash control switch, a resistor, and a relay all in the control circuit.
Maz. Is there any play at those settings?
Bob,
Are you still having problems with wandering and play in the front end of your coach? Maybe something isn't set up correctly?
No mine drives like its on rails.
Just trying to figure out whether the legal adjustments versus preloading alter the steering wander or affect the "dead" spot some report and mine used to have before my seal replacement and bearing tightening
I have a bit of wander, and I'm going to check wheel bearing slop some point in the near future. I believe in preload.
Bob,
Tell us about the "Legal" adjustment as referred to wheel bearings per your "expert Foretravel mechanic"
Always learning new Legal requirements.
Tnx
Bob, It is the same as it was so I would say no.
Mark
I have a lot of trouble believing that the correct end-play will affect wander. We are talking about .001- .005". Can not understand wanting to go from .001" to zero or pre-load.
Neither bearing nor axle manufacturers recommend this (if they do, please post link).
The stemco video referenced here a while ago shows the seal installation and settings.
The narrator mentions several times the legal defense ability of using the dial indicator to verify the .001 to .005 movement of the hub after re installing it.
Harder to quantify preload. Easy to be off. Any failure would be a lawsuit.
Looks like to me they leave the bearings slightly loose to be able to fend off suits versus take the play out of a tapered roller bearing an unverifiable amount.
My long term chassis Foretravel dealer mechanic preloaded mine a bit.
An experience and feel thing.
Watch the video and see what you think as to why?
My old Honda bike had a initial torque in the steering head bearings to align the roller pins then back off and retorque at 22 pound feet in the manual.
If no one has any wander at the .001-.005 that's great. Just need the feedback.
Not loose. Read between the lines on this maybe.
My 100k coach wandered and had a dead spot in it. Unknown the play at that time in the bearings.
Re tightened the play and wander and dead spot were gone.
Wear? Poor initial bearing adjustment when new? No idea
When I questioned my 30 year chassis mechanic his answer was he preloads the bearing a bit to take any wander out of the coach. Period.
No call backs for him? Happier customer?
Bob,
Agree with the .001-.005 adjustment on taper wheel bearings, my question is your mentioning the preloading of the bearings then adding a torque ft lb number.
The reason for the Free .001-.005 is for lube ability of bearings, with zero clearance, lube is an issue.
Also, wheel bearings loose enough to cause a driving issue would be detected by most fools early on.
Also slightly loose taper bearings last a lot longer than ones that are "Preloaded", zero clearance
1 to 5 mils can be a lot...especially with a 22.5 inch rim + tire there to amplify the play.
And here's the link--I'd say Timken knows what they are talking about....and I've posted this before: Timken knows more than all of us, so see what they say about preload (if preloading took away oil clearance, why would they say it's acceptable?): http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PDFs/Timkin%20bearing%20pre-load.pdf
Topic where I posted this: front wheel bearing preload? (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=21982.msg165441#msg165441)
Edit: NSK also has a PDF on preloading: http://www.nskamericas.com/cps/rde/xbcr/na_en/Preload.pdf
Preloading bearings is common practice.
Krush,
From your first link (see below) it appears that the bearings/wheel end design should be designed for preloading.
I do not have any information on using this technique on the OE Foretravel bearings/wheel ends.
Always interested in learning something new.
So, do you want preload in your wheel bearings?
It depends on the wheel end design and the
quality of the components used. If the
traditional design is your preferred wheel end, be
careful to avoid excessive preload, the risks are
serious. However, new wheel end designs
utilizing Timken quality components create
opportunities to safely use slight preload,
reduce maintenance costs and improve fleet
profitability.
You can read the text and interpret as you wish. They state be careful to avoid "excessive" preload--probably added by the lawyers. But lets quote the rest of what it says: "If the traditional design is your preferred wheel end, be careful to avoid excessive preload". AND: "To date, there isn't anything available that will confirm that the fastener is providing the correct preload setting. Be aware that if you are attempting to set preload in a traditional wheel end, you are depending on the quality of all the components and the skill of the technician to get it correct every time. "
Is this not what I've been stating the entire time? There is no idiot-proof procedure to measure preload with standard bearings....it takes skill. However, requiring SKILL to preload is much different than saying, "preloading a bearing will cause it to fail. Don't preload, it's dangerous, etc etc." Open heart surgery requires great skill too, but that doesn't mean it isn't done correctly every day.
The other article link I gave is regarding bearing preload as well, and is not specific to wheel bearings.
We all can do as we wish, but wheel bearings are not some super-special fancy magic hunk of metal that the normal design practice of standard roller bearings can't be applied to.
The fact is that wheel bearings live a pretty easy life in not too difficult conditions.