'76 Inner and Outer Bearing Help plz.

[TexasDude]

I'm in to a year long project and trying to make heads or tails of what the PO did to this bronco. For starters, he installed the rear drum brakes backwards, and I've found a few other little tidbits along the way. Well played Sir. Well played.

Now, I fixed the rear brakes. Now I am on to the inner and outer front bearings. Everything is stock Dana 44 and front disk brakes. Since I was changing out the brakes, I thought I'd change the bearings. Well here are my questions (I have a Chilton's for the bronco coming, but it won't arrive until Saturday).

When I took off the drivers side front hub, the two locking nuts on the outer bearing were tightened beyond tight. I'm talking 90-100ftlbs of torque. Was that normal? I can't find an answer on the Timken sight for torque specs for the two outer retaining nuts. So, my question....

1. Are they suppose to be left just hand tightened? I'm finding this on a few internet pages.
2. Are they suppose to be tightened down? How many ft lbs?

Now, the bronco I am finding out has a few interesting things the PO did. So, I am not positive on what is actually "stock." My bronco has two retaining nuts before the outer bearing. They have a washer with four wings sandwiched in between.

Thank you so much in advance. I am close to being done with this bronco, and just doing the final details to make it driveable. The wife will finally stop bugging me to get this done.

Again, thank you in advance,

TexasDude

 

[langester]

Sounds like stock parts to me by the description you gave. Here is a youtube video that might help out. It is a disc conversion video but the bearing tightening is the same. Hope it helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VvWV6_rAns

 

[hogfan]

It's right,inner nut gets tightened to 50ft/lbs while spinning the rotor ,then backed off 1/4of a turn. Put the washer on lining up the nub on the back nut with a hole in the washer. The outter nut gets torqued to 70-100 ft/lbs.

 

[patterdale]

Do your best to find an original set of ford service manuals or the disc versions. Chiltons are a fall back position if ford's aren't available. All the specs needed are in there.

 

[DirtDonk]

My bronco has two retaining nuts before the outer bearing. They have a washer with four wings sandwiched in between.

As the others have said, the two nuts with a washer in-between (but not your washer it sounds to me) is standard for Dana axles. Remember this is not a "Ford" product, but an aftermarket supplier.
The inner nut is the "adjusting nut" and the outer nut is the "lock nut" and adjustment is not like your standard old car.
Different front wheel bearings on different vehicles get different adjusting procedures. So always get the book when possible.

Your washer is supposed to be a single inward-facing tab with small holes around the perimeter. Parts should look like this: https://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/Spindle_Nut_Kit/bronco_Dana44
All Early Bronco front ends used this combination.
Do your tabs look like they could be "bend-over tabs" on the outside to be folded down over a flat side of the nut to lock it in place? If so, sounds like someone preferred the Jeep or Scout version and swapped it.

If that's the case, you may want to check out the books for Dana axles with bend over tabs for Jeeps to see if the adjusting procedure is the same.
Or just get a set of correct nuts & washers for a Ford/GM/Dodge Dana axle.
But for Bronco Dana axles, as was said the adjusting procedure is as follows:

1. Inner adjusting nut (with the pin facing outward) to 50lbs while turning the wheel. This sets the bearings and races and squeezes out any excess grease.
2. Back the inner nut off a full quarter turn.
3. Mid locking ring seated correctly with the tab in the groove and the pin square in one hole.
3a. At this point, ignore the fact that the free-play is excessive.
3b. Ignore any YouTube or internet discussion that talks about the bearings needing "pre-load" instead of free-play. Dana did not call for preload, so I would not experiment with your own settings.
4. Outer locking nut to a minimum of 70lbs. Most book specs call for 80 to 140 pounds. But with at least 70 you're usually safe. I use 100 as my target torque to be kind of in the middle.

At this point, with the outer locking nut torqued down like that, 90% of the excess play is gone and you should end up with roughly a .001" to .010" free-play setting.

Obviously in all this, and as a Bronco owner, you'll need a hub nut wrench/socket/thingy (like this: https://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/Wheel_Bearing_Nut_Socket/More_Tools) if you don't already have one.
The one in the pic is considered the more desirable style, with the four tabs inside the outer ring. The old style with the four tabs proud of the edge is still perfectly valid, and works fine and are often less expensive.
But they are slightly hard to keep in place, so the recessed style has an advantage.

Have fun!

Paul

 

[TexasDude]

You guys are awesome. I found an online version of the Chilton's service manuals. I'll keep an eye out for the Ford version of the service manual.

As always, the insight you guys offer supersedes anything a book can provide.

Thank you so much,

TexasDude

 

[DirtDonk]

A member sent this to me to post.
Now, let's see how pdf's work...

View attachment IMG.pdf
View attachment IMG_0008.pdf
View attachment IMG_0009.pdf

Pretty much what you need to know to do a better job than most younger paid mechanics these days. Many of whom don't read the old books and don't know the adjusting procedure.
We've had some disasters, and near disasters when mechanics were tasked with re-packing and properly adjusting our wheel bearings.

Included is also info on how the factory Spicer type lockouts are assembled, and how the bearings and races are worked on for your other thread about the races.

And I don't see any need to separate the two discussions. To me they're all about the same section of the vehicle, so can be in one discussion thread.

Paul