I'm replacing my ball joints up front and figure as long as I'm at it I'm going to replace the axle shaft u-joints and wheel bearings??? as long as I have it all apart. I'm looking at NAPA Online, however, and seeing that they do not sell front wheel bearings, just the hub assembly.

Are the bearings not servicable? Do I need to replace the entire hubs?

 

yup whole hub assembly check out ebay i found mine on there for like 60 bucks i think etopline is the sellers name

 

Yep gotta buy the whole assembly. I bought a set of National Bearing ones online which is what napa sells for like $90 shipped for 2.

 

Where did you get those from online?

 

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/PARTS-MA...__W0QQ_armrsZ1

they had an auction where you could send best offer and I sent mine and they accepted. Yours may cost different since yours has the newer ones for cast rotors.

 

Darn - Even at full price those are a good deal, but it looks like they only carry them for up to '99 models, and mine is a 2000

 

Yeah that sucks..They sell National bearing brand hubs and those are what NAPA sells as their cheaper units. Might drop them an email and see if they have any and just not on their site. National makes good bearings and most of the ebay sellers sell what ever they can get cheap and sometimes you may get good stuff sometimes not. Etopline advertises theirs as tomken when they are not really timeken and are made by a Canadian bearing company. On ebay sellers you can either email them or call them and ask who the manufacturer of their bearings are and if they two step skip em, if they say it varies skip em. If you find one that states the brand/manufacturer post here and I am sure someone can give insite ont he brand.

 

Go to AutoZone.com or whoever and check to see if '99 and '2000 hubs carry the same part #. They just might work.
I'm not familiar with XJs.

 

The issue is mid 99 the XJ's went to a cast rotor which requires a different hub. So some 99's used the composite rotor which uses the earlier model hubs from 90-98, but some 99's use the cast rotor hubs that the 2000-2001 models use. So the 90-98's use part# 513084 and some 99's but some 99's and all 00-01 models use part #513158.

Also to note the National is what Rockauto sells as their premium bearing line..

 

Here's a pic to see the difference between the 90-early 99 hubs compares to later 99-01 hubs..

 

Are the later hubs stronger? Could you change to later knuckles/spindles?

 

The difference is the older ones use a composite rotor and newer ones use a cast rotor. I could be wrong on this but I think you could simple just change the hub and move to the newer cast rotors but don't quote me on that. Would need to check caliper and pad factory part #'s to make sure those didn't change. I do believe the spindle ie the out axle shaft is the same on the 99 and 2000 models and the knuckles as well and the only difference is one uses a composite rotor and one uses a cast rotor. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in on this one.