Regular maintenance on the original style wheel bearings gave them long life, but too many people failed to grease them like they were suppose to do. I think the FSM called for the bearings to be greased every 3,000 miles. you had to pull both front wheels off, line up the zerks with the holes, pump in 2 -3 pumps of grease and put the wheels back on.
It's been a long time since I messed with this generation of front axle hub units, and I'm not remembering a grease fitting. I pulled up pictures with rotors and hubs with an extra hole in the lug area. Is the grease fitting in the area where the spindle bolts to the "knuckle"? If so, does it feed both the inner spindle roller bearing and the hub bearings?
And I know we are spoiled by todays sealed unit bearings and synthetic lubricants, but I can see why people would balk at regular maintenance like these apparently required every 3000 miles. But I guess that was at the end of the era of "high maintenance" vehicles, where 3000 mile oil changes were the norm, cars actually still had grease fittings, and the bias ply tires needed 3000 mile rotations to last even 20,000 miles. With todays lubes 5000-7500 miles is more the norm for oil changes, and a tire rotation every other oil change.
In this case here - pretty sure a 265/70R16 on a standard centered offset wheel is biggest size tire/wheel it will see. We will probably pull it down far enough to put in new u-joints, spindle/axle bearings/seals - assembling everything with premium synthetic grease. Should cover the bearing issues with a more relaxed maintenance schedule, like every other oil change.
Thanks for the replies.
