Whenever i lock in the drivers side hub on my truck it chatters intermittently. makes you want to stop the truck immediatly thats what it sounds like but if you keep driving a little ways or hit the brakes it will stop. if you unlock the hub and leave everything else locked and in 4wd it doesnt do it. SO what the hell is going on help please. ive torn down this hub and wheel bearing 3 times trying to figure it out. it sounds similar to when a wheel bearing is loose and out of balance. but thats not whats going on.

 

Have you rebuilt the manual hub on the d-side? I'd completely tear it down and make sure everything is as it should be. Make sure the big spring isn't flipped upside down/backwards as it is flat on one end and the spring sits flat and not flat on the other end. I forget which end goes which way, but I have the rebuild printed off 4x4wire for reference. Don't over grease it either as it makes the hub not fully engage.

Please post what fixes it.

 

Spindle bushing. Been lots of posts about it lately.

 

Sounds like it isn't fully engaging right away. That's what mine sounded like when I had my tires rotated on vacation and for some reason he turned one of my hubs halfway. Like wabbit said, I would try full rebuild on that hub, also check spindle bushing while you are in there.

 

Sounds like a spindle bushing to me. If it only makes noise when you got the hubs engaged, I'm betting its because the CV is vibrating and rotating against the brass spindle bushing.

Theres a write up on how to change that bushing to a bearing, but, be advised : I took to my truck with the confidence in the instructions. They are great instructions, but, without a slide hammer to pull out the first bushing, You have just wasted an afternoon screwing around. Thats what I did.

One of the technicians here advises that the bearing isn't a good replacement anyways. The bushing won't actually wear out if you maintain it when it starts to make noise, and the bearing will because it can rust and seize and it won't moan and groan when it's out of grease.

To make it quit, if it is indeed the spindle bushing.. there are two ways of fixing it. Make a spindle greasing tool, or pull out your CV axle and grease the hollow shaft that the axle rests in. I can go more in depth if you want. I fought this problem for like a month straight then finally a little grease did wonders.

 

Hey mister willie tell me more. this has been going on for ages like a year but i just dont use 4wd much in the past year so i havent had much incentive to fix it but now that i am in CO. and have to use it more often its got to get fixed. I pulled the front diff out when i had then engines i wish i would have known then to pull that CV it would have been easy but jeeze that was a bitch to get out i cant imagine doing it with the engine in. i dont thing there is enough room to do it.

 

It's early and I haven't had sufficient coffee, but the CVs are both turning when 4WD is engaged regardless if your hubs are locked or not, so if the noise is only there with the manual hub locked, I'd start with rebuilding the manual hub first before tearing into the brass bushing/CVs.

I machined a piece of round bar into a "punch" to knock out my SFA brass bushings...those things are in there for sure.

 

The Wabbit is right about the 4wd and CV's moving and such. I would do what he suggests and rebuild the hub and put it back together first. That will be much easier and take less time and energy. If it still don't quit, try greasing the steering spindle bushings.
The process for pulling the CV axle is really easy:

Jack your truck up, it won't hurt to put a piece of 2x4 in between the bump stop and the top of the A-Frame, for clearance issues later. Pull off the tire and Hub(six lugnuts and six nuts and cone washers). Remove the gold dust cap and bolt/washer from the end of the CV. Remove the nuts from the connection to the Differential on the proximal side of the CV. The bolts are studs, so you can hammer a few out to give you enough clearance to pull out the CV axle from underneath. Then just load up that hole that the CV axle came out of with grease and put it all back together. This is alot easier, trust me, than trying to pull the entire steering spindle.

When I pulled my CV axle to replace it, the 2x4 at the bump stop helped because we unbolted the upper ball joint to pull the spindle out a little. The clearance was tight on the CV axle and the differential connection. I got some pictures to show you what the whole process is, I just need to get them on my computer. I can do that tomorrow afternoon and post them tomorrow night.

 

i could be mistaken but im pretty sure that my front CV's and Front Drive shaft do not turn while im moving if they arent locked and in 4wd. i have watched it go down the highway from another vechicle and didnt see them turning. anyway i will check it out after new years when i get back into town and HOPEFULLY the 20 feet of snow we have will be melted.

 

Unless I've just had too much nog in my egg nog...

T-case shifter in 4High or 4Low = front and rear driveshaft turn

The above with the manual hubs turned to "Lock" = 4WD

Someone please slap me to sanity if I'm wrong here.

 

The front CV's will turn if you got it in 4wd, The wabbit is wight. The front CV's WON'T turn if you got it in 2wd and the hubs aren't locked. The CV's Will turn if you got the hubs locked in 2wd.

The fall man, see if it makes noise in 2wd with the hubs locked. If the hub isn't engaging, Your CV axle shouldn't spin in 2wd, and thus it shouldn't make noise. If its the spindle bushing, it'll make noise in 2wd. I've noticed that if it's cold outside, like below 40F, the spindle bushings will more readily make the noise.

 

 

There is a write up of a much simpler way to lubricate those noisy spindle bushings.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...DLE+LUBRICATOR

 

thats what i ment the CV's dont turn when in 2wd and hubs unlocked. and it doesnt make the noise if hubs are locked but not in 4wd. it only makes it when its in 4wd and hub locked

 

then mo' than likely its yo hubs or something to do with the differential maybe? I wish I could help more.. try tearing apart the hub and rebuilding it, or if you can, put some ADD hubs from an 86-95? toyota on there and see if the ADD plates cause it to make noise in 4wd. If they make noise too then you know it aint the hubs. If you don't hear the noise and you have successful 4wd, then it probably is the hubs. I'm trying to get a pair of Warn premiums for christmas, if I can order a pair for myself, and you can wait, I can send you my ADD plates to try out on your truck to see what Happens.

Anyone please feel free to step in and help me out on anything I got wrong.

And yeah MDT Tech's write up for the lubricator is sweet, but I can't fabricate a bowl of cereal in the morning so my approach works for me.

 

well it will be sometime in jan before i get around to pulling it apart cause im flying to WA tomorrow. for a week and half then i half to wait for the snow to melt inorder to have a place to work on it since i dont have a shope here in CO. all that ÅÅÅÅs still in WA grrrrr. anyway i have like 2 more sets of hubs floating around here somewhere probably not complete but all manual.

 

Ohhh - no noise with hubs locked in 2WD, probably not spindle bushing then.

I'm in Longmont - not a huge garage, but it's dry and I have all the tools. PM me if you need help.

 

I had the same thing happen to my 86 pickup.. so I rebuilt the hub and it still did it. So from searching on the kickass site I found that it might be the spindle was dry. I took the cv out and sure enough there was no grease and put some in cause I had no time to make one of those tools and it fixed it and the noise was long gone. Seems to be smoother when in 4wd too. No time to make the tool cause it is cold and wet here in wyoming. But I would like to say thanks for all the knowledge on this site, and I hope that my experence helps others. Best $5 I put into the truck thus far.

 

SPINDLE BUSHING