Loose Wheel

[pattygook]

Hey guys,

About every month, my bii will become more and more swervy on the road because of a problem. It ends up that the front driver side wheel is very loose (and probably about to fall off). Taking off the wheel and hubs to tighten the bolts is getting old quickly, so I was wondering if you guys knew why it was constantly getting loose. I have to loosen both the lock nuts up, tighten the first one, then finish off with the second one. There isn't any type of washer that'll hold the last locknut in place and I was thinking there should be. Can you guys give me the heads up on if I'm missing any parts or if something else is wrong. I replaced the upper ball joint a couple months ago and that's when I noticed it was very loose.

 

[BroncoJoe19]

Hey guys,About every month, my bii will become more and more swervy on the road because of a problem. It ends up that the front driver side wheel is very loose (and probably about to fall off). Taking off the wheel and hubs to tighten the bolts is getting old quickly, so I was wondering if you guys knew why it was constantly getting loose. I have to loosen both the lock nuts up, tighten the first one, then finish off with the second one. There isn't any type of washer that'll hold the last locknut in place and I was thinking there should be. Can you guys give me the heads up on if I'm missing any parts or if something else is wrong. I replaced the upper ball joint a couple months ago and that's when I noticed it was very loose.

Sorry that I can't give you specific advice, but generally speaking when there is a lock nut involved, the proceedure is to hold the main nut with one wrench, and then tighten the lock nut up to it with another wrench. If you are using only one wrench, that could be your problem.

joe

 

[pattygook]

Sorry that I can't give you specific advice, but generally speaking when there is a lock nut involved, the proceedure is to hold the main nut with one wrench, and then tighten the lock nut up to it with another wrench. If you are using only one wrench, that could be your problem.joe

Well I've only been using a screwdriver and a hammer to tighten the nuts since I don't have a wrench that big, so maybe thats a problem. One other thing I noticed is that there's a washer between the two nuts and I was thinking maybe this was wrong also.

 

[aqua_wonder]

Can you use a 4-wheel drive spindle nut wrench?

 

[pattygook]

Can you use a 4-wheel drive spindle nut wrench?

I've never heard of one. Are they expensive? Do you think a local shop would let be borrow theirs in their parking lot?

 

[aqua_wonder]

A spindle nut wrench are inexpensive for the most part. You could pick one up in a decent parts store.

They look like this.

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/kd2467.html

 

[STLKIKN]

If you have manual hubs on your BII there should be an inner nut with a pin, a lock washer, and an outer nut without a pin.

You tighten the inner to the spec in your manual USING THE PROPER TOOL (pin facing out), fit the lock washer into place on the pin and the key way into the slot on the spindle (it is reversable and you back the inner off only to allow the pin to fit into the closest hole) Then finish off by tightening the outer nut to factory spec, again using the proper socket. This is the only way to achieve proper bearing set-up/ preload, any other method can or will destroy your bearings and can severly hurt or **** someone if it comes apart!!!

 

[Broncobill78]

Hey guys,About every month, my bii will become more and more swervy on the road because of a problem. It ends up that the front driver side wheel is very loose (and probably about to fall off). Taking off the wheel and hubs to tighten the bolts is getting old quickly, so I was wondering if you guys knew why it was constantly getting loose. I have to loosen both the lock nuts up, tighten the first one, then finish off with the second one. There isn't any type of washer that'll hold the last locknut in place and I was thinking there should be. Can you guys give me the heads up on if I'm missing any parts or if something else is wrong. I replaced the upper ball joint a couple months ago and that's when I noticed it was very loose.

What year is the BII and what type of lug nuts are you using ? The 87 & later Full-Size trucks all have notations in the factory manuals to NOT use the old-style one-piece acorn type lug nuts in combination with the new (87+) style rims. The new rims *require* the use of the new two-piece captive washer type lugs. Mixing and matching will result in the wheel coming loose.

Now that's just off the top of my head. From the post itself I'm not quite sure what you're talking about tightening up. Are you meaning that you're disassembling the hub to get at the spindle nuts or do you mean the wheel-lug nuts ? As others have suggested the spindle nuts can *only* be adjusted using a spindle-nut socket, but ****, that's maybe $15 from anyplace that sells parts. If you use a spindle nut socket then it's no problem to tighten the inner nut & the locknut. Is the inner nut positioned correctly ? The inner nut has a pin in it that engages the washer and then the locknut holds the entire assembly in place. The inner nut is sometimes installed backwards with the pin against the bearing race and when that happens the assembly can loosen up (if that *has* happened then chances are the pin has been ruined & you'll need a new spindlenut). Just something to ck. Also, it's not an assembly you just tighten and forget about. IT needs to be tightened to a specific torque range while the wheel is being spun to properly set & load the wheel bearing. Bottom line is that it needs to be done w/a torque wrench & a spindle nut socket.