strange grinding/squeaking noise/feeling from front drivers side hub??

[dommo2007]

Ok, before I spend umpteen hundred $$$ on a mechanic, I figured I would check here:

I have started to notice this weird noise comeing from my front left hub area. It sounds both grinding, and a little whining/squeaking...you can also feel it grinding, but not all the time. It is worst when I am accelerating from a stop with the wheels turned to the left. I havent taken the hubs apart yet, but I probably wouldnt be able to tell you whats wrong even if I did. All in all, it hasnt done anything bad, other than the noise kinda scares me, since strange noises are generally bad...but I was wondering if anyone could give me a diagnosis, from what little info I gave you. Oh yeah...I have auto locking hubs right now, but I am about to switch to manual. I did however, put the truck up on jackstands and spun the hub, and I am pretty sure its from the hub somewhere since it was in 2wd, and the axle wasnt spinning, but it was still making the squeaking noise.

Can anyone help me? Anyone had this before? Tell me its just that the auto hubs are ***** since I am going to switch them out next weekend sometime.

Thanks

Oh yeah...someone told me it might be the bearing might be going out, or the snap ring or something. Does the auto-manual conversion kit come with those bearings and all that, or do I have to buy those seperate?

 

[Seabronc]

My guess is you have a bad bearing and that it is sawing it's way through the axle. Take it apart and don't drive it that way. If you continue to drive it, you may get a nasty surprise.

Good luck,

>-

 

[Shadow_D]

^ X2

That is exactly what I was thinking...

It isn't too hard to fix that... Bearings shouldn't be more than say $25 each, you need an inner and outer, Grease another $8, tools depends where you go. Time could be less than a day to do the job as long as everything goes well. Just remember to tighten the bearings down when you are done then drive it a few miles then re-tighten the bearings again and you should be fine...

 

[dommo2007]

My buddy(who swears he is somewhat of a mechanic) says the same thing. Does the hub conversion kit come with everything I need as far as bearings and such, or is that something seperate I need to buy? I had planned on switching out to manual locking hubs either this weekend or next...now I wont be driving it till then, but thats ok. Anything else that I should worry about checking while I am down there...I mean, is there anything other than the bearings that might be really worn down because of the bearings being bad?

Thanks

 

[Justshootme84]

I agree with the othters that you likely have a wheel bearing going bad. The hub and even the wheel will get hot to the touch after driving for 10-15 minutes. A quick check you can do is to jack the wheel up off the ground, and see if there is any slack front to back, side to side, or up and down. There should be none. IF there is, the wheel will wobble as you drive down the road.

Replacing the auto-locking hubs for manual ones is a great upgrade if you ever use 4WD, since the auto ones are prone to failure without warning. The manual hubs only come with the hub, snap ring and screws to mount it t o the axle. You will need to buy inner and outer wheel bearings, spindle bearings and grease seals, and a special spanner socket to remove the locking nut. To replace the inner axle bearing and seal, you need to remove the spindle. That's the part that the brake rotor and hub bolt to and the outer axle goes into. It can be hard to remove this part, especially if the axle bearing is seized. You'll need tools to remove and install the seals and bearing races in the rotor-hub assembly and the spindle. The procedure is outlined in the Haynes or Chilton repair manual, or look up the reapir in the Tech Articles links forum. JSM84

Here's a good thread on the manual hubs, with some helpful links from Miesk5. You can also look up more links on his homepage:

http://broncozone.com/forums/index.php?sho...ic=6916&hl=

And a good, detailed install thread on FSB for replacing the wheel bearings:

http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102256