Something went bump in the night!

[tiessen]

Driving my Exploder on Fri night home from work and was faced with popping, grinding and general bad noises. When I was crawling in traffic, it felt like something was binding, my truck would almost stop, then a loud pop. When driving at speed, grinding noises and some pull and vibration in the steering. I pulled the front passenger (where I originally thought the noise was coming) and found nothing, spins OK, brakes look fine, sliding calipers OK. I'm thinking now that it might be a U-joint in my rear driveshaft. I just did a SOA, the U-joints are originals and non-greasable. What is a good diagnostic test for bad U-joints in my driveshaft and how hard are they to replace.
Thanks for any help...

Cheers

Dale

 

[Kyle K.]

u-joints are not hard at all a good diagnostic is to put the truck in neutral with one or both tires off the ground and turn the shaft, you can listen for garbage noises then, if it is a u-joint that bad fthough you should be able to tell visually. shake them turn them whatever, there shouldn't be any play in them at all. if you do have to replace and i would suggest soon anyway, you press one side out remove the cap then reverse the process. simple, use a vise or press, some are pretty skilled with just a hammer be carefull, if you feel any resistance just before the cap seats fully don't force it, the resistance is probably a needle bearing that has fallen sideways. good luck and let us know what it was.

dodger

 

[Paul Gagnon]

Check your bearings. If you are having grinding noises this is most likely the problem. Actually change them just to be sure. They are cheap and you are probably due for them anyways. Make sure you get U.S. made bearings because the Chinese made bearings may not last very long.

Also check your spindles, they may get damaged if the lock ring spins in the keyway. Remember when I had to stop outside Bellingham to check my bearings? It was because I did not trust a damaged spindle.


------------------
Paul Gagnon
"No Brain, No Pain"
Dead Link Removed

 

[tiessen]

Here is an update. I lost my locknut key the night something went bump and McGard just got me a new one. I test drove the problem again. Definitely front end, passenger side. I pulled the wheel and the hub was very loose. In the dark and rain, with a flashlight, I retorqued the inner & outer locknuts and put the wheel back on. Test drive, OK. This morning on the way to work, feels like a flat spot, maybe in bearings?, then after a while some more noise (grinding), then some bad pull to right (jerking the wheel), lastly felt in brake pedal when braking. This is probably my bearings, yes? I know they're easy to swap, I just don't want to do it the dark and rain tonite unless I'm reasonably sure. Could it be something in my brake? The slide caliper seem OK, anything else?

Thanks for any help. I'll let you all know tommorrow what I did!

 

[tiessen]

And the winner is wheel bearings! I got about 1/2 way home last night when the noise got real bad. I pulled over and left the vehicle. Came back an hr later with some new bearings and some tools. Pulled the rotor off and the pieces dropped to the ground! Took 1.25 hrs to swap. There was some damage to the spindle...some light scoring on by the lock ring. Should I just put some emory clothe to this? A used spindle is $125! I hope to avaoid this. Thanks for the help...

Cheers

Dale

 

[Paul Gagnon]

How much damage to the threads on the spindle? If it is not too bad you can get away with it for a while but you will have to check it more often just to be sure.

------------------
Paul Gagnon
"No Brain, No Pain"
Dead Link Removed

 

[tiessen]

Well, on Sat I took it all apart again. Bearings really loose again! Better inspection of the spindle...it was hooped (is that the technical term). Pulled it off & the inner bearings on the spindle fell to the ground. Went to a wrecker, $100 for a used spindle in perfect shape with good bearings. Repacked it all up & pulled apart the other side to check...all was fine. In another 4x4 chat group I listen in on, a current topic is what usually breaks on the trail...well I would bring a hub, wheel bearings, a spindle & U-joints...does this sound complete?

Cheers

Dale

 

[Glenn Biggs]

Some advice on those non-greasable U-Joints. I changed mine at 100,000 miles. I did a visual check before and they seemed good, no grinding noise or whatever. When I dropped the drive shaft, the joints were very hard to turn, they were about gone. So just raising you vehicle and turning the axle is not really going to give you a good idea of u-joint condition, it's better to drop the axle and get a feel for it. And remember to put greasable joints back on.