midiwall

Not very well... I looked at it and decided that it would be a bad idea for me to try to jerry-rig something to replace a press.


Just to follow-up, my problem ended up being the rear axle bearing on the right side.

Are you _sure_ that your noise is coming from the front? Until I got a chance to stick my head out the window with someone else driving, I would have sworn it was in the front end. I was wrong...

I replaced both rear bearings (and the seals) for about $300, which included $60/axle for a machine shop to press out the old and press int he new.

Badmice1

Midi - When I have my foot over the brake peddle & I tap it lightly, I can feel a small vibration that correlates to the rubbing noise. Can it transfer from the back axle to the front?

midiwall

Hey Bad.. (my name's Mark btw)

I could feel it in the floorboards, the brake pedal, and the steering wheel as I went over bumps. I SWORE it was the front end.

The transference in the floorboards was the grinding in the bearing coming through the suspension; the brake pedal was from the wheel actually going through an elipitcal orbit since the bearing was worn; and the steering wheel was actually the result of a bit of bump steer from the wheel bouncing hard off of a bump on that side.


Your issue may very well be the front end, but it's worth getting someone to drive while you hang out the window. It would REALLY suck if you tore down the front end only to find out that nothing was wrong.

Badmice1

Mark - I've torn out the knuckle assembly to replace my bearing (front driver side), and it didn't eliminate the noise. I am tempted to do the same thing on the psnger side, but I just want to nail down the problem once and for all, so I'm tempted to just take it into the shop.

I will have somebody stick their head out and see if they can hear it outside. I can't hear any rubbing noise when I stick my head out on the driver side.

Thx again.
Alan

keisur

I would just take it to a shop and explain the symtoms and let them figure out what it is. then once they tell you, decide if you can do it or if you can't then let them do it. more than likely if you take it in and they diagnose and you do the work they'll charge you a diagnostic fee like 35 bucks or so.

SloPoke

I finally got around to tinkering with the pics I took when I changed my wheel bearing back before the holidays......Pics Here (click em to enlarge em)

They show the process as well as the arbors needed to perforn the job without ruining the bearing. If you have any ?'s you can post here or use the mail link on the pic page.

I planned n doin a little write up but it seems I never get enough time to sit here and do it without interuptions so I'm just posting the pics.

Badmice1

Mark - So a little development to this problem. I was on my way home from Lake Tahoe (about 3 hrs from where I live), and my ABS lights came on. I started losing brake pressure, and eventually I smelled really bad bad brake burn. The brakes started to squeeled.

I noticed some gunk/fluid leak on my right rear wheel, and the smell ended up coming from that area.

But guess what? The grinding noise is gone.

Diagnosis?

midiwall

Oh WOW... scary stuff. GLAD YOU'RE SAFE!


Umm, gunk/fluid could be diff fluid coming through a rear axle seal, but given that it came along with the brake fade, then I'd say that the booster solenoid in the right rear sprung a leak. Have you pulled the drum yet?

The grinding noise stopping could be because you now have a nice slippery coating of brake fluid in the drum, or the pads have self-destructed and are in pieces. The latter happened to me a little bit ago. Pics are here.

For reference, the "booster solenoid" is the oval cylinder at the top center of the drum in those pics. It's got a pair of pistons in it that push out against the top of the brake shoes and thus push the pads against the drum.

keisur

bad seals in that wheel, possibly even a bad bearing. what happened was gear oil got into the drum and onto the shoes and fried up really good when you hit the breaks. mine would sieze up at really low speeds and the tire would drag on the ground when that happened to me. better get that thing fixed and your break shoes need replacing now too, you can't clean them off since they've obviously been saturated now.

more commonly called a "Wheel Cylinder." I have a Bendix wheele cylinder sitting in my garage (brand new) if you need to replace yours. just let me know and we'll work up a price.

Badmice1

I had to take the car to the shop, and that is exactly the same thing the shop told me. So yes, they're replacing all that you mentioned, along with the ABS sensor, which was shot due to the heat generated from the bad bearing.

For future references, how could I have detected that beforehand? I now assume that I would have had to take out the drum to look at the bearing? It's not something I can inspect visually, right?

midiwall

So... it WAS the rear bearing, just like mine? Too bad you didn't catch it earlier.


The way I knew for sure what it was on mine was a combination of a) to hear it with my head out the window, b) I pulled the drum and pulled horizontally on the axle (there was more slop on my "bad" side than the other), and c) I pulled the wheel/axle out of the diff far enough to come free of the four bolts, then you can feel the wobble in the bearing.

You'll REALLY want to do both sides. If one went, the other one is probab;y close behind.

Lemme know what the shop charged you; it'll be interesting to compare it to what I paid for parts and just the pressing on/off.

Badmice1

Mark - I was just talking to my wife about this last night, and how somebody called the rear bearing...

We did stick our head out, but maybe we didn't know what we were doing, and couldn't figure out where it came from.

The shop quoted me 245 for labor so far...I will come back with the final damage.

keisur

I never had to replace my ABS sensor and mine heated up a couple of times. I would doubt the sensor is bad, it just temporarily malfunctioned due to the heat. all it is is a magnet in there, like a proximity sensor that sends a "0" or "1" signal back to the computer, very unlikely that it is bad. I would probably tell them to do the bearing work and check the sensor after that. those are expensive, especially if they're replaced and don't need to be.

Make it a habit to look at the bearing flange where it mates to the axle tube and check to see if they're is leakage. that's most likely where you'll see a leak from the seals without pulling the drum.

Badmice1

so here's the damage. the repair was a little over 1K, with a seriously damaged ABS sensor (it looked like minced meet), a messed up ABS rotor, and a rebuilt rear brakes.

The mech explained as the bearing was getting worse, the axle started to wobble, and in the process, the ABS rotor started to grind up against the sensor. Once the bearing busted, all of the grease shot right into the drum & saturated the pads, which was replaced.

I brought back the sensor & the twisted ball bearing...I'll post it up once I take a picture of them...

thx for all the help. bummer that I swapped the wrong bearing (front left)....

keisur

hey, at least you got the right thing fixed though. I'm interested in seeing your pics.

midiwall

Wow man... big bummer.

I agree with Keisur though, it's fixed now.