Wheel bearing welded

[78Power]

The dana 60 rear (drivers side) locked up coming home in rain. Luckilly stayed on road. After getting the hub off, the outside wheel bearing is completly gone. The inner part of bearing is welded.

Anyone seen this? Can it be cut off?

[sret43]

The same thing happened to my 1956 Ford F600 dump truck. I used my Dremel with a cutoff disk to cut the inner race. You should have heard it pop when I got all the way threw. Just be careful not to graze the axle housing.

[Charles Talbert]

I've torched many off back in the heavy equipment days. It can be handled any number of ways, better tooling for task like that than we had back then. It really won't be that big of a deal to remove it. The part you really need to look at closely is the possibility of damage due to over heating of the spindle, hub, etc. Reusing heat damaged components can be the cause of catastrophic failures which you want to avoid at all cost.

[78Power]

wheel bearing failure

I have the welded inner race off the spindle. Used a cutoff wheel to remove pieces at a time. I was forced to grind down the outer bearing area to remove the inner bearing. I ground just enough to remove the bearing. Here's my question, is it usable again? Does the inner race of the bearing need to spin freely on the spindle? At this point, it would'nt, it's just enough to get the bearings on. Should I be looking for a new rear?

[sret43]

I can't make that call about the axle being reusable but the inner bearing races do not need to be press fitted to the housing. As Charles stated, though, getting the axle housing as hot as it did could be of some concern. I continued using my rear axle housing without any trouble hauling up to a combined 21000 pounds of gravel and truck with no problem.

[Charles Talbert]

I agree nobody can make a diagnosis on this from a photo, I'd recommend you have someone local look at it who is qualified to make the call. I've never known the heat created by the removal process to be an issue. It's how hot it got and how long the high temp ruled when the bearing went down that would cause a possible issue. Another concern now is will the inner and outer bearings be running on center (in alignment) since you ground on the outer bearing spindle surface. If not, this could cause premature bearing failures in the future.

Concerning the inner bearing, I agree again, a snug slip fit is good. If the cone assembly spins freely on the spindle, that's a might too loose.

Services exist these days that specialize in spindle repair, they usually cater to the trucking and heavy equipment industry. You may have someone local who offers this service, check around truck or heavy equipment repair shops, they can likely recommend folks equipped to do this, or they may offer the service themselves. Most offer either in shop or on sight mobile service. Their technician would be able to answer the question concerning possible spindle damage due to heat. If they say it is repairable, the outer bearing surface would be a simple fix for a service equipped to handle that type of repair.

[DODGEBOYS]

the inner and out bearing races are slip fit [do not spin on the spindle] if they do spin you can do what the "old timers" call DIMPLING / thats were you take a center punch and dimple the spindle to raise the metal / then file it to get a slip fit

[Charles Talbert]

Works in a pinch, however

the inner and out bearing races are slip fit [do not spin on the spindle] if they do spin you can do what the "old timers" call DIMPLING / thats were you take a center punch and dimple the spindle to raise the metal / then file it to get a slip fit

I'm assuming you meant to say bearing cones, however you said races which generally refers to the bearing cups.

While this method (dimpling) usually works as a get by until a proper repair can be made, it simply isn't ideal. The problem is that in no way does this produce a precision assembly fit. Pricking with a punch and hand filing to obtain a slip fit will result in the bearings running off center and out of perfect alignment every time. This will create an abnormal cone / cup wear pattern and will reduce the running life of the assembly as a best case scenario. Worst case could bring about another bearing failure event.