Front Wheel bearing issues
 

OK, So a couple weeks ago i started getting some vibration from my front wheel bearings. It was intermittent and would only happen over pretty decent sized road defects but i knew they were going to go fast. So i got home from school, (thanksgiving break) and replaced the wheel bearings, races and seals. I had done them before so i figured i knew what i was doing. snugged it up and man what a difference!!! So i drive back to school (120 miles) in the snow, no problems. I drive up to rehearsal for a gig i got (75 miles) no problems. The ride is noticeably smoother as well. On the way back from said gig, it was snowing, and i got caught in a packed snow rut and it jerked me over to the center rumble strip at about 45 mph. after i climbed out of that monstrosity, the wheel bearing started acting up. The brand new freakin' wheel bearing. I get home late and go to bed. I get up today and drive to class, trying to take it easy on her, it's worse than before!!!

So i went back to manuals (i have several) and started re-reading the procedure. I didn't have spring scale so i went out and found one.

here is what i did.
Driver's side

1. Completely loosened bearing.
2. tightened bearing, and made sure there was no play.
3. torqued adjustment nut to 43 ft lbs. and spun a couple times.
4. loosened adjustment nut and hand tightened.
5. used spring scale to measure seal resistance. (3#'s)
6. tightened adjustment nut to 18 ft lbs.
7. took measurement with spring scale (7 pounds). Not enough of a difference as it needs to 6.4 - 12.4 pounds more than the seal resistance. The manual says to increase/decrease preload until spec is reached.
8. i increase the preload in increments, testing each time until i got 13 pounds of resistance to start the hub turning. The adjustment nut was now at 40 ft lbs. The hub spun well and all seamed as it should be.
9. installed lock washer and nut. torqued to 43 ft lbs.
10. reinstalled drive flange and torqued nuts to 13 ft lbs.
11. installed wheel, torqued to 85 ft lbs.
12. test drive....STILL FREAKIN' VIBRATES, granted, not as bad. I figured this was the passenger side. so i went hunting in there.

Passenger side. Repeat steps 1-12.

Yeah, including 12. The only difference hear is that while the hub required a similar amount of force to start turning it didn't spin nearly as well as the diver's side. (this is going to be the one i start on when i go work on it again). I am curious to see if the seal did not seat all the way.

So i guess what i am asking is, WHAT THE HELL AM I MISSING?!?!?!?!?! I am seriously getting tired of this and i need it to work by thursday. I did it right, spent the money got good parts and it still doesn't work.

Thank you for any input you can give me.

Not to be a jerk, but are you sure its your wheel bearings?

well when i first ran into the problem, i suspected wheel bearings, and check them, looser than hell. the wheel had some play in it. but at this point it could be something else. i have been planning on checking the tightness of the nuts on the tie rods (just replaced over the summer) and ball joints. as well.

What do you think it might be?

*Sigh*
Lube the inside of your spindle. Search spindle lubricator

you mean inside the of the spindle where the cv shaft comes through it?

Vibration?

Could be all sorts of things. Steering components. Bent rim. Out of balance tires.

:wabbit2:

It's just so random. but i am thinking it could be suspension related.... I am going to start checking torque specs right now actually.

Maybe the spindle deformed from the vibrations and heat build up. If thats the case, the tighter you go, the worse the problem gets and the CV could start jumping around in there..I'm just brainstorming here. A CV issue could also be causing the vibrations...grab the metal section and give it a good shaking to see if there is significant play.

It shouldnt take 40 ft/lbs on the preload nut to get within spec on a spring scale.

I found that it is relatively easy to not seat the bearing races all the way....so they loosen up as you drive. I torqued down the bearing then turned the wheel around several times, then retorqued to spec.

I'd probably rotate the tires. I probably would not use a torque wrench. I'd check all of the steering components with the wiggle method. Check the U joints. If you feel vibration, I'd generally think your problem would be anything but a wheel bearing. I'd make sure the front hubs are disengaging when you unlock them. One of mine wasn't and it wears the spindle bushing out before it's time. It makes a vibration and hums pretty loud.

Are you suggesting that he not use a torque wrench?

I think his spindle may be the issue...maybe the bushing is going out??

In Regards to the hubs, I have ADD and it uses drive flanges instead of manual locking hubs. I wish i had Manual hubs, they just haven't been high on my priority list lately.

it is so intermittent that i figured i could rool out tires all though i was thinking of having them re-balanced since they are just some "craigslist" steel wheels and tires that i only use in the winter time. I went back checked the steering and as it turns the idler arm castle nut had backed off down to cotter pin. Turns out while the inside diameter of the nut was the correct size, the outside diameter and height of the nut was not big enough to grab the cotter pin to keep it from backing off. Long story short it took about 6 full rotations to get it to snug up and reach torque spec. that took out 98% of the intermittent vibration. Now what it did do it make me realize that there is another vibration that seems to kind of "wind up" to the major strong intermittent vibration. really pretty interesting. I am a musician and it seems like a resonating harmonic at certain frequencies. when it starts resonating it can quickly pop higher frequencies which is the stronger vibration. I think the pitman arm joint may be next.

That is a possibility that has been bouncing around in my head. I think that is the case on the passenger side because it seemed to do what you described.

While this is true, I have been keeping an eye on the hub temps and while the passenger side is warmer than the drivers side after freeway driving in 4wheel drive, it was nothing alarming at all. It was almost expected that it would be that warm and the passenger side and that the drivers side was cold. so i don't know.

IT is possible that my cv's could be starting to go out. I had a mechanic check my rig last summer and he said that there was the boots were showing wear and the joints would need to be replaced within the next 10,000 miles if not sooner. I haven't put 10,000 miles on my truck but since the snow has hit early this year in Ellensburg, i have been using 4 wheel dirve a lot more than i had in the past. so there was probably some accelerated wear in the CV's.

Another question/thing that i was thinking about was the steering stabilizer. Toyota designed this suspension system with a steering stabilizer built into it and it seams like that would be to help stabilize not only impacts but help control vibration in the steering system. If steering angles and and suspension angles don't agree it can create vibrations within the suspension system. mine is the original so it could be shot too. Now i am also a believer that people put steering stabilizers on their rigs to cover up other problems. So who knows?

Thanks
Alex
:wrench: