Not familiar with the Detroit Iron book. Is it Bronco-specific, or generic?
If it does not have the Dana procedure, it likely does not have the correct info.
So just in case, it goes like this:
1. Inner nut (bearing adjusting nut) with the small pin facing out is torqued to 50lbs while you spin the rotor. This squeezes out excess grease from re-packing and serves to set the races if they were not fully seated to begin with.
2. Back off the adjusting nut a full quarter-turn/90° and leave it.
The bearings will be very loose at this point, but ignore that.
3. Locking ring slides over the spindle with the tab in the slot and verify that the pin slips fully into a hole. If not, pull the ring off and flip it over to see if that helps (the holes are offset from the tab, so flipping it might work).
If the pin still does not line up with a hole, reach in with a finger or tool and turn the adjusting nut just slightly enough to line up with the nearest hole.
When doing this it is recommended that you move the nut looser, rather than tighter. But sometimes the pin is just a half a tick off and moving it tighter a tiny bit will line it up.
4. Outer nut (locking nut) torqued down to 80-100 lbs. Done.
Books vary from a low of 70lbs to a high of 140 lbs, but 80-100 seems the sweet spot and this pulls things up tight and reduces all that excess play to the specified .001" to .010" free-play.
You hear all sorts of calls for "bearing preload" but there is no such thing with these bearings in any official book anywhere that I've ever seen.
Obviously, the 50lb initial torque, and then that 100lb final torque, is why you have to buy or rent one of those hub-nut sockets and add it to your arsenal of tools for your truck. Even some pro-shops don't have the correct ones anymore, so it really can pay to have your own.
When you see a mechanic try to set these with a hammer and chisel(!) you'll realize your sub-twenty dollar purchase was priceless!
Have fun!
Paul
