Drive with 3 wheels anyone?

Well this is almost the last straw for me. I was driving down the highway Monday and out of nowhere my passenger front wheel decides it doesn't want to be a part of my truck anymore and wants to go it alone. After all was said and done it destroyed the knuckle, ball joint, rotor, hub, pretty much everything except the caliper and the wheel. Turdle's nice powder job was scraped up a bit too.

Also now that the truck is in the shop they tell me that one of my other rims was bent, and the shop that balanced the wheels before put 14oz of wheel weights on it to balance it out. It never rains but it pours I guess. So now I will need to straighten out the passenger fender so the door will open. The tire did a number on it when it came out of the wheel well. I will also need to find another wheel to get coated somewhere down the line too.

On to the pictures!

 

[Slowlyvverot]

I have nightmares of this happening to me. Glad you're ok though.

 

[Turdle]

Oh man, I'm glad you are ok Matt. You are very fortunate it ended like this.

 

[Willard]

Do you know what happened? Looks like a bearing might have let go.

Good thing you were able to keep it in control and not cause more damage. That still sucks pretty bad though.

 

[MrQ]

Damn, man, you snapped the snout right off!! That's just insane. I am really glad to hear that you are ok; that could have ended up much worse.

To bad about the truck. It is still one of my absolute favorite 1st gens on this site.

 

[dislexiclawyer]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I am pretty lucky it wasn't worse. About 2 minutes prior to this happening I was driving at 70 mph, so I am very lucky it didn't happen then or I may have rolled the truck. I was only doing around 45 at the time.

As for the damage it seems like the bearing broke and everything pulled straight through the rotor and that's why the wheel separated.

 

[techieman33]

I driven on 3 wheels a couple of times, never like that though. Glad your ok.

 

[Rick]

What exactly busted?? The spindle and spindle nuts are still there, but the outer bearing is gone I'm confused!


(edit) I found your post with the answer. I've never heard of that happening before. WTF?? That's just nutz!

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

At first I thought, oh just another case of half-hazardly tightening the lug nuts, but this is far from it! Looks like your gearing greece got contaminated leading to the failure.

Were you just wheeling or servicing the hub prior to this happened?

... this reaffirms my thoughts that once I'm able to build myself a trail rig one day, I'm getting a trailer to stick it on!

Glad your okay. Get her fixed up!

 

[pwhiteelec05]

holy shat! glad your ok.

 

[dislexiclawyer]

Well I grabbed a picture of the fender today when I picked the truck up. Its kind of hard to see all the damage but hopefully tomorrow I can get it straightened out.

 

[MrQ]

Looks like when the wheel came loose the whole side of the car came down on the now-free wheel which popped out of that squeeze, crushing the fender. I hope you can get that beat out.

 

[dislexiclawyer]

Well I now have a functioning passenger door again. Only had to take the fender off and then saw off the busted up bottom half... I didn't feel like trying to bang it back into shape. I guess I just have to keep my eye out for a new undamaged fender and wheel well liner.

I also have a slight problem. The shop mounted my steel spare on the rear and now I can't get it off. Any suggestions short of going to a shop and having them do it for me?

NO fender!!

This will have to do for now.

 

[BrianDye]

Doesnt even really look bad like that man, sorry to hear that though, I also thought "lousy lugnuts" at first LOL, but I was hella wrong.

Very scary to think that can happen to any of us

Glad your okay though man!

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

whoops

 

[jmdirk]

I've had a simlar thing happen to me. Cooked both bearings. If you look at the, the nut that pre-load the bearing hole the whole assembly to the spindle. Other than that, the caliper is the only thing that keeps the tire and wheel assembly on the truck.

I literally melted the pins of both bearings and the outer shell of my hub fell completely off. Ended up having to replace the whole spindle since the inner race of the bearing was fused to it.

 

[explorer917]

hey man same thing happened to me, except it was my drivers rear wheel. i have no idea how it happened, i felt the truck start to wobble a little when i slowed down, so i got out and checked the lug nuts, they were all tight. about 5 minutes later BAM. all the lug bolts were sheared off at the rotor. crazy night lol. glad your okay!

 

[f250]

Glad you are ok. On the bright side you didn't have to buy a new inner bearing

 

[Gus Gorilla]

Hey if you mean your steel spare wheel and tire are stuck on the rear you can very slightly loosen the lugnuts and very (stress on VERY) briefly drive and swerve. Before I get flamed on by the gallery let me clarify. I'm talking about backing lugnuts off by 1/32nd of an inch and driving no more than the length of an average driveway. 15-20yds. One good swerve or shift of weight will usually pop the wheel loose. If not, back off another 32nd and repeat with a harder swerve.
I worked in a heavy equip shop with large trucks being common. Often the wheels would not come off the trucks and this would do the trick in the bay. No heat wrench or hammer necessary.

 

[dislexiclawyer]

Hey if you mean your steel spare wheel and tire are stuck on the rear you can very slightly loosen the lugnuts and very (stress on VERY) briefly drive and swerve. Before I get flamed on by the gallery let me clarify. I'm talking about backing lugnuts off by 1/32nd of an inch and driving no more than the length of an average driveway. 15-20yds. One good swerve or shift of weight will usually pop the wheel loose. If not, back off another 32nd and repeat with a harder swerve.
I worked in a heavy equip shop with large trucks being common. Often the wheels would not come off the trucks and this would do the trick in the bay. No heat wrench or hammer necessary.

Well i took your advice and it seems like the spare just really likes being on the truck. I think I am just going to have to call the shop that put it on and have them take it off, or see if they have any other advice.