Well, since noone on any of the Ford diesel boards seems to know, I'm a gonna ask you guys...

I just picked up a 00 250 4x4 here, with what the dealer had diagnosed as a bad right front wheel bearing... It didn't sound like one to me, so, I tried locking the hub(I have manual shift 4x4,) and lo and behold, the hub didn't work... Pulled it off(came off in pieces...) swapped the Warn premiums off of my 86 on there and the noise is gone...
However, it doesn't seem like there's any spindle bearing or such holding the axle shaft, waaay more play than I'm used to in the older front ends. There's a seal that's pressed onto the axle shaft, and apparently is a press fit into the knuckle also. I think the one on that side is junk and may have contributed to the death of that locking hub, but, it seems noone can tell me exactly what that seal does.
Anybody here know?
Changing the lockouts is as far as I've been into one of these unit bearing piles of crap before...
TIA
Evan

They have a sealed unit type brg, we replace lots of them in our shop, if it has play, replace the unit, and bend over when you buy it. Yes they will make a hub fail
Butch

Interesting... I'll have to take a look at that when I pull it apart(have to balljoints) but, whoever had the front end apart last(looks to have been Ford from the recipts) failed to replace the axle dust seal(the one in the end of housing, it's plain old not there...) and the axle main seal(the one that is pressed on the stub axle) is in pieces in there.
The only thing that has play is the axle, and it seems like it's because it's not sitting in the spindle bearing properly. I can shove it in and make it sit right, but, there's no snap ring to hold it in place like a fixed spindle axle.