What's up with this design? Although I have not looked at it myself my mechanic says it is some ridiculous set up that is going to be very expensive to replace them? Can someone give me some insight please?

Yep poor design.. not really that expensive,

L & S AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTS Part # A22
Front Outer Bearing Set; 1/2 TON and 4 WHEEL/ALL WHEEL DRIVE,SPICER 44F-BJ
Front Inner Bearing Set; 3/4 TON and 4 WHEEL/ALL WHEEL DRIVE,SPICER 44F-BJ
Front Inner Bearing Set; 1/2 TON and 4 WHEEL/ALL WHEEL DRIVE,SPICER 44F-BJ
Front Outer Bearing Set; 3/4 TON and 4 WHEEL/ALL WHEEL DRIVE,SPICER 44F-BJ

Choose:
$29.79

Until you have done one you wont believe how some one could even design such a stupid setup.Ive done quite a few.Its a bit of time just getting the inner bolts out.Need IIRC a 3/8 thin deep well 12 point socket for them.Then hope the heads dont round off.Then when the hub comes off get the bearings off it.Mine were all well worn Ohio rusters.Rocky

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Yep poor design.. not really that expensive

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Except if you need new knuckles and rotor hubs. Then you have the 3 piece inner seal for greasing and the outer seal in the retainer. Once the bore in the knuckle is worn you will never be able to get the bearings tight which equals slop in the wheel itself. There is a reason they only ran it for a few years. Junk. Whats real funny is the idiots that think its a great perfect set up.

Most mechanics say anything is expensive just to make some money.

Nitrousn I forgot about the knuckles.One I had I had to hunt 20 yards to find used knuckles and that was in the 80s.Once they really start to wear the wheel gets tons of sloop and wants to lean.That and the grinding.I bought one RamCharger real cheap because of the knuckle hub wear.Took me about a month to fix it because I had to find parts cheap.You used to be able to buy a complete hub.They were pricey even back then.Rocky

I'm sure the knuckles , hubs, axles, and rotors from a 1980 1/2 ton will swap right in. Then there's the question of whether you want to do the conversion to the transfer case..

Its not that bad of a setup, sure its complicated, but they did make it easy to grease the bearings, just most got neglected. It wasn't designed to be disassembled for maintenance.

There are trucks on the road today with factory bearings in them, so they weren't that bad if used as designed.

Now when you start adding big ass tires, and offset wheels, then your going to have issues.

If you dont take the front wheels off and grease the hubs your going to have issues, but if you grease the hubs when you rotate the tires or at least twice a year, they will normally live a long and happy life.

I put a 78 D44HD under my 93 Ramcharger, partly because I got a smoking deal on a military surplus rebuilt unit, and mostly to be rid of the goofy self locking front end that I dislike.

I wont run over about a 32" tire on the front, and my wheels are a typical 8" with near center offset. I'm sure I will get plenty of use out of the setup once its out on the road and not in the garage.

The only thing good about them was they were nice to grease, I feel that if they could have spaced those bearings farther apart there would have been less problems with them

I have drilled a hole in the wheels to make greasing them a lot easier...

No big deal once you've done one...the first try is the hardest, after that, it's just procedure...

My Dad's '76 still runs the factory setup and has only had those bearings replaced once, although I do hit 'em with some grease every oil change.

FYI NAPA sells a complete unit...rotor/hub/bearings, bolt on replacement for these trucks. I haven't ever used this setup, but came across it on the NAPA online website after I did a set of bearings on a friends '77 W100. That would have been much easier (his needed the rotors replaced as well).

Good luck!

JS

Do you have the part numbers for this set up?

No, I do not. I bought a set that way about 3 years ago, I would suggest that you call a local NAPA and see if that setup is still available. It was sweet, bolt on, no mess/no fuss!

Good luck!

JS