front bearing service

[willxfs]

I have a 98 2door tahoe with 4wd. Right now the hubs are off cause I just replaced all ball joints. Should I do anything to the hubs/bearings. Truck has 230k miles. No service to bearings that I know of. They seemed to be working fine with no wierd noises or grinding. Just wondering cause now is the time to do it while the hubs are down.

I've researched a little here and the general consensus is to leave the OEM bearings alone till they start causing problems.

Can I just pull the bearings and repack them or are they a sealed unit. When I pulled the hubs, the bearings had some blackish, worn out looking grease on inside face. Maybe that old grease came from me removing the stud of the lower ball joint from the hub. I had to tear up the grease boot of the ball joint when using an old crappy pickle fork.

What do ya'll think.

 

[SunlitComet]

sealed unit and if fine just reinstall. but the might be grease from installing drive shaft. as well. just check for any free-play at all if you have reasonable doubt replace them with some moog units.

 

[willxfs]

Thanks for the reply. Grease probably came from the drive shaft and not the lower ball joint.

How much grease to use and where to put it when re-installing the cv shaft??

Thanks

 

[SunlitComet]

just smear it on the shaft and inside the bearing race. helps to keep from rusting.

 

[willxfs]

Thanks for the reply. I finally found the section in my book about reinstalling the cv shaft. Im curious as to why it says not to use any grease on the splines of the shaft that fits into the hub. It seams that you would want a light coating of grease, if for nothing else, rust prevention like you mentioned.

I'll probably just put a very very light coating of grease on those shaft splines. Thanks again.

 

[SunlitComet]

Bit on the plunges just the smoothed round area that touches the bearing race.