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Ok, once again I get to have the unusual. In 2020 I burned up a bearing, so I had all of them replaced. Never did a lot of maintenance on, just added some grease once in a while. Heading down to Florida from South Dakota last fall my brakes failed. Not related, but it was the impetus to get some maintenance done. So in repairing the brakes we found two bad calipers, got those replaced, and a bad hub. It seems when they fixed the first burned bearing they had to sand the spindle a bit and sand the inside of the hub/rotor also. That made the seals not seat quite right. Ok, no problem, getting everything fixed this last January.
Replaced the bearings in two of the hub/rotors, inspected and repacked all the rest. No sign of wear. Yahoo, good to go for another season, not.
1700 miles after the repacking the left rear bearing burns out. It gets real toasty, tears some stuff up. Fortunately I discovered it across the street from a trailer repair facility, my lucky day. They jumped right on it. Removed the wheel, removed the cotter pin, tried to take the castle nut off. The electric impact wrench couldn't remove it, ok, get the air impact wrench; no go. Ok, old school, got the 1/2 inch breaker bar out with 3' pipe extender. Twisting the castle nut, it would not come loose from the spindle. This can't be good. Ok, more parts needed. It's an LCI axle so I called LCI, apparently you cannot replace the spindle on an LCI 7000k axle, you have to replace the whole axle.
Here's where need help/advice. Anyone else have a similar issue, can you verify that my only option at this point is to replace the axle?
Hub/rotor is also damaged, so automatic replacement there. Brake pads damaged. Of course the bearings are gone. About the only thing salvageable is the caliper.
Next subject; Trailer repair facility tells me they can probably get a Dexter axle easier than they can get the LCI axle. I am not opposed to that, but getting the correct axle measurements for an exact replacement is new to me. In the morning I will crawl under there and get some more measurements. Looks like it will be Monday before an axle can be ordered, then about a week for delivery. Anyone have a source than can knowleadgeably guide me on which axle I need?
Have a look at my handy dandy chain the axle up thingy. Don't try this at home. But it did get me 2 miles down the road to an RV park so I can wait for parts.
Axle tag
Replaced the bearings in two of the hub/rotors, inspected and repacked all the rest. No sign of wear. Yahoo, good to go for another season, not.
1700 miles after the repacking the left rear bearing burns out. It gets real toasty, tears some stuff up. Fortunately I discovered it across the street from a trailer repair facility, my lucky day. They jumped right on it. Removed the wheel, removed the cotter pin, tried to take the castle nut off. The electric impact wrench couldn't remove it, ok, get the air impact wrench; no go. Ok, old school, got the 1/2 inch breaker bar out with 3' pipe extender. Twisting the castle nut, it would not come loose from the spindle. This can't be good. Ok, more parts needed. It's an LCI axle so I called LCI, apparently you cannot replace the spindle on an LCI 7000k axle, you have to replace the whole axle.
Here's where need help/advice. Anyone else have a similar issue, can you verify that my only option at this point is to replace the axle?
Hub/rotor is also damaged, so automatic replacement there. Brake pads damaged. Of course the bearings are gone. About the only thing salvageable is the caliper.
Next subject; Trailer repair facility tells me they can probably get a Dexter axle easier than they can get the LCI axle. I am not opposed to that, but getting the correct axle measurements for an exact replacement is new to me. In the morning I will crawl under there and get some more measurements. Looks like it will be Monday before an axle can be ordered, then about a week for delivery. Anyone have a source than can knowleadgeably guide me on which axle I need?
Have a look at my handy dandy chain the axle up thingy. Don't try this at home. But it did get me 2 miles down the road to an RV park so I can wait for parts.
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