From: Nathan Wilkens (nathan.wilkens@asu.edu)
Date: Fri Apr 04 2003 - 22:29:30 PST
I spent the a chunk of the last two days servicing the front brakes and
wheel bearings on my M1009 CUCV. Although the braking seemed fine, I began
to hear a high pitch squeal from my right front wheel that would go away
when I lightly held the brake pedal. Also, my truck pulled really hard to
the right whenever I hit the brakes hard - so I had it aligned twice in the
last year, and was told that since I have different brand tires on the front
left and right, that I should live with the braking pull (seemed a little
weird to me since both tires are the same size). I had also noticed that
the steering seemed pretty loose, but I chalked that up to a worn out
steering box....
So, yesterday I opened up the front hubs for the annual bearing repack (my
first on this truck since I bought it a year ago), and after I removed the
locking hub pieces, I reached my finger in the hub to remove excess grease,
and with the blob of nasty grease came the outerbearing nut, lock nut, AND
the inner lock... The only thing holding my front right wheel on was about
the last five turns on the bearing retainer nut (the lock ring and outer
retainer nuts had already come off). Now, strangely, the truck didn't act
at all like one of the front wheels was about to fall off, and all the
symptoms I had could easily have been found on any high mile truck. Another
thing that was strange was the nuts and lock ring combination was for the
5/4 ton axles, even though my 86 M1009 has the 3/4 ton axles. The big
problem was that the lock ring had been installed backwards, with the
retaining pin facing the nut without the retaining pin holes....
Anyway, the reason I bring this up, other than for the obvious safety
reasons, is to point out to anyone who owns a CUCV and hasn't done a wheel
bearing service - that it is really, really easy to do (don't waste your
money at a brake shop) although it is really, really messy (I went through
five rolls of paper towels). The job really doesn't take long if you have a
couple of inexpensive specialty tools (a special socket for the lock nuts,
the GM allen wrench for removing brake caliper bolts if you are doing
brakes, a small screwdriver, a snapring pliers, a bunch of brake clean, and
that's pretty much it). I had a badly scored rotor on the right side
(causing the pull) and a badly worn rotor on the left side, so I had to wait
to finish until this morning when the new rotors arrived at my local Checker
Auto parts store. So, after spending only $140 for parts and supplies, I
have two new rotors, premium brake pads, even better braking power with no
pull, no slop in the steering, greatly reduced low-order harmonic vibration,
and the knowledge of a job well done..
Incidentally, I used a commercial paint stripping compound to remove the
desert tan paint from the front hubs so that I could repaint them black
(yes, they were originally black). My 'baby' sure looks sharp now!
Now... to decide if I'm up to replacing a valve cover gasket for tomorrow
morning... Anyone have any words of experience on replacing the left valve
cover gasket on a 6.2L diesel? My landlord is thinking about repaving the
parking lot and doesn't want my slight 'drip' to mess up his new asphalt
(heathen!)...
Nathan Wilkens
86 M1009
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