Front hubs / unit bearings—and maybe more

[Rickyd]

For anyone following, I opted for a full rebuild/upgrade set of 16" rotors, calipers, pads/shoes, and pre-machined hubs from @mrblaine. When it's time to do the same for the TJ I'll follow his recommendation and grind down hubs myself on the vehicle. They arrived yesterday and packaging was absolutely superb. He even includes a nice folder with all the instructions found online. For others interested in how it all looks, updates will be in the build thread once I get around to doing it, most likely in a few months. Until then I have to decide if I want to swap in axles with a re-gear and lockers now or later. I'm leaning to now since it would go nicely with the new hubs and upgraded brakes, and will give me a spare set to put in the TJ and figure out what is still going on with it.

What did the problem wind up being? Bearing? Ujoint?

 

[ChadH]

It was a little bit of all. The hub bearing is definitely bad, pretty rough and noisy. But the ball joints are starting to have movement and the brakes needing servicing anyway. I'm sure the fluid is in need of servicing as well, although there is no gear/bearing noise there. I have been planning for the last year to upgrade to the 16" kit so it's fitting to take care of it all.

 

[Head Lice]

Where did someone find Mopar bearings? I don’t think those have been an option for a long time.

Guessing Mopar does like many others do with their OEM parts. Mopar probably puts out a tender for a bearing or ? built to their specs. Cheapest bidder gets the contract? Mopar doesn't have a bearing factory. That OEM bearing could be a Spicer, SKF, or ?