Dana 44 front hub stuck

[inkedmonkey]

Is there a way to remove the entire knuckle assembly without pulling the hub? Outer wheel bearing is destroyed and I can't get the hub assembly to budge. I've tried heat and everything without luck. Is there a way to remove the entire assembly so I can replace it all? Or do I need to look for another dana 44?

[babywag]

Probably have to use heat wrench and cut bearing off spindle.
Or with a really really sharp chisel might be able to crack/break bearing apart.

were you able to remove the locknuts/snap rings?

[inkedmonkey]

Yeah the rings and stuff are out. I think their locating pin got messed up and it has slowly tightened and crushed stuff. I might have messed up the hub at this point. Thought about cutting it apart to get to the bearing race. Then just buy all new stuff.

[babywag]

did the bearing fail and weld itself to spindle?

[inkedmonkey]

I believe so. Its missing some rollers and some others are sideways. Total mess. Looks like gm hubs should fit? I ordered one and new bearings. Gonna have to do some cutting.

[babywag]

depends 2 different spindles/bearings could be there.
d44 stuff interchanges, no real way to tell until measured.
there are big bearing/small bearing parts and it could be either one after decades of being on road.

spindle will be toast and needs match hub/bearings used.

[rang-a-stang]

Yikes! That sounds ugly.

I'm with babywag, expect the spindle to be toast. Grab an air chisel and a torch and start cutting things off. Hopefully you can at least save some parts (like the axle stub shaft, and any other of the small parts). Good news is it should be fairly cheap and easy to replace all that you cut off.

You could "probably" pull the U-Joint apart and remove the spindle from the ball joints but that would probably be a lot more work and not really save you any money.

Pics?

[inkedmonkey]

I'll snap some pics when I dig into it. Of course this had to happen the day before a snow storm. I'll start cutting this weekend.

[rang-a-stang]

I just had an idea... this might be easier... So see the drawing in my first post here:
http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=189949

If you got the actual hub off to see the bearings themselves, you can probably remove part 36 (spindle shaft) on out in one fail swoop. So, remove the caliper, remove the disc (if you can, they are cheap so if you ruin it, worry not), then you should see the nuts that hold the spindle to the knuckle and it should all come off. If your disc is seized to the hub, you could probably push the lug studs through to get the disc off.

[babywag]

spindle bolts to knuckle
hub is held to rotor via lug studs
if outer bearing is stuck to spindle only way to remove as whole assembly would be taking entire knuckle off.
then likely need to do ball joints as well.

be a lot of extra work if ask me.

[rang-a-stang]

Oh wait.... yer right. There is a cup around those nuts that hold the spindle to the knuckle. You HAVE to remove the hub to get to the nuts that hold the spindle to the knuckle. Dangit.

[inkedmonkey]

Well probably the most difficult way to remove a hub but I got it done. Ended up having to cut the crap out of the hub and cut the bearing race, but it's out! Now I'm just waiting on Fedex to drop off the new hub and bearings.

[rang-a-stang]

How did the spindle fair?

[inkedmonkey]

A little scoring at the outer bearing location but not bad considering. I cleaned it up with some files and think it'll be fine.

I got a large bearing hub and my spindle is small bearing. So I'm going to make a sleeve to adapt it. Just to save the $100 for a new large bearing spindle.

[babywag]

just grab big bearing spindle pretty cheap/plentiful used.