B4Runner

I have a horrible grinding sound coming from my left front wheel. The sound and symptoms have very quickly gotten worse from when I first picked up on the shound. Now, the hub or spindle (not sure which) will grind horribly starting at 5 mph. The grinding will stop for a fraction of a second while at a higher speed and pick right back up. Also while at a higher speed, it will make a higher-pitched binding kind of sound.

I thought the problem was my wheel bearings, which the sound I described to a mechanic was verified as the bearing. Luckily, I have a parts truck, so I just took the whole hub/rotor off of the parts truck and put it on mine.

Now that I got everything put back together, the sound is back, almost worse. I have no idea what's wrong now.

Was the problem truly the bearings?
If so, did I do something wrong by just swapping the hubs?
Is it possible for the spindle itself to have somehow broken?

Thank you very much for any help given. I am in desperate need to get my truck back on the road. Thanks again!

Marc

Sounds like it might be your spindle bushings.
Here's a link to a tool to lube them if that's the problem.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...ctures-100327/

B4Runner

Looks like an awesome tool. However, making one goes beyond my skill lever or time allowance.

I'm going to go see how much more work it is to take the spindle off if the parts truck to see if I just want to swap that over as well.

Thank you though for your help! My grinding does sound like the squealing he described.

xxxtreme22r

Is your truck ADD or manual hub? In the process of doing this on mine as well. I don't know what year your parts truck is, but keep in mind the inner spindle bushing is different for newer models.

Not sure when they changed, but if you buy new, then they are now the same part number, however........ this causes a problem: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...pindle+bushing

Make sure you read that whole thread, this is the same exact issue I currently have while trying to use the "newer model" spindle bushings in my 87. To my knowledge this is the only thread that addresses this as well.

B4Runner

My truck is an 88, the parts truck is a 1st gen 89. I'm hoping they are the same. My truck has manual-locking hubs.

I tried to undo the bolts to the spindle and I'm going to throw my shoulder out of place if I try to break them with the small breaker bar I have. So, the idea of swapping spindles isn't all too possible anyhow.

I saw that thread on how to create the spindle luber, but I saw something about welding the nut on, which I can't do. Plus I believe it was for the ADD set-up.

Do you have any suggestions now? I am really stuck now that the hub-swap wasn't the answer.

xxxtreme22r

If your grinding when the hubs are unlocked, it won't be the spindle bushings.

B4Runner

Maybe it's the bearing and it is a completely coincidence (who knows what the chances are) that the hub/rotor from the parts truck had bad bearings too. (It did seem a little worse once I but the parts hub on.)

I make the assumption above since you say it's not the spindle.

I have no idea of what is possible or not, but maybe it's the hub itself? Should I take off my locking hub all together and see if that makes a difference?

(Related or not, this is the hub that is unusually stiff to lock/unlock.)

Oh, but this might be important: The sound my truck is making now DID originally start happening (rarely and only lasted a few moments) while I was locked in and driving in 4x4.

B4Runner

Bump? Sorry for any rush. I'm just in need to have my truck running again and I have little time to work on it.

NCalDyer

it could be your cv-axle, only around 60 or so dollars to replace and easy enough to check (replacement is pretty simple as well)

xxxtreme22r

cv axles don't spin when hubs are unlocked. Which is why I said not the spindle bushings. Now, does it get louder when your at full clock steering? or while only going straight? What about hitting bumps? Or is it there all the time? If it's there all the time, it's not the CV's either.

NCalDyer

true but he did say that the problem started when he was locked in so the cv's are totally a possibility. they are also easy to tear the boots on and very easy to check

peow130

is it a possibility that your hubs didnt unlock and your wheel is still spinning the CV?
Btw, you dont need to make that tool to grease your spindles, a grease needle works just as well, and uses significantly less grease lol

B4Runner

I replaced the driver side CV last winter. An untreated torn boot eventually led to the outer knucle shattering. However, I had this sound occur (only once) long before the axle breaking.

I also have 2 CV's on the parts truck, so I'm set just in case.

Okay, keep in mind that this problem is on the dirver's side and will not occur under 5mph.

(I went to the near-by elementary school to have room to do donuts.)

Drving straight always causes the sound. It is also what I compare the sounds of turning to.

If I pick up speed and cut left, the sound seems as though it is creating a tighter bind, or a tighter grind, whichever it is, until it doesn't have enough speed to make the sound.

If I pick up speed and cut right, the sound doesn't seem as bad (though I am only going as fast as I can safely go to cut into a full clock turn).

So basically, if I turn into the problem side, it gets worse. If I turn away from the problem side, it doesn't seem as bad.

From what I can tell (by checking behind the rotor and inside the hub), the CV is fine.

What other way could I check other than removing it?

The hub is surely unlocked because I don't have 4x4 if they (particularly the driver's side hub in this case) aren't turned to the lock position.

xxxtreme22r

My money is on the wheel bearings.

NCalDyer

no other way, if your hub isnt spinning it and it looks fine it probably is

B4Runner

Alrighty. Looks like I'll be taking the other right side hub from the parts truck and hoping it's bearings are good. I just have a hard time fathoming that of all things, the part I replace my broken part with is also broken.

toyota4x4907

How did you determine it is in the front driver's side?
Have you tried jacking up the vehicle to spin the tires to try and replicate the sound?
Have you had your U-joints checked out?

xxxtreme22r

If the preload isn't set correctly, you can destroy wheel bearings quite quickly. You did say when you chnange parts out the first time the noise went away for a bit right?

But it is a possibility that the ones you used off the parts truck were bad to begin with as well. I highly doubt this is a cv problem. But... one other possibility is just a rock in between the rotor and dust "shield". I've had that problem quite frequently, to the point next time I have that rotor off, I am cutting it off.

B4Runner

The noise could not be more distinctly coming from the driver side. It is like having a speaker in each of your doors and only one working. There is no way you could not know which speaker was still working. The noise is that loud and distint. I can't think of a better way to explain it.

Spinning the tires while jacked up doesn't help. The noise wouldn't occur while driving the truck below 5 mph at the least, so spinning isn't enough to cause the noise.

And from my experience and knowledge, it definately isn't any of the u-joints. I've had bad u-joints before and this is no where close to the sound.

Preload could definately be a problem. I don't have a torque wrench, so I just estimate how tight it should be. (I guess that's okay with bumper bolts and such but not this.) And there is definately no rock stuck between the dust plate and rotor. I've had that problem, and that is not the sound at all, not to mention there is no rock there anyhow.

The noise never went away when I swapped ont he first rotor from the parts truck. It seemed to have gotten the tiniest bit worse.

But as we stand now, I just got finished swapping on the second rotor from the parts truck. From what I can tell, the noise is gone.

However, there are a couple things that might mean mean something (but I don't know what to make of it).

While I had both parts truck and my driver rotors off, I tested the inner bearings on all of them. (All the outter bearings seemed golden.) I took my fingers and tried to spint he bearings.

My original bearing (with the original problem) was slightly hard to spin. It wasn't too bad, but managable.
The driver side hub from the parts truck (problem got worse) was incredibly hard to spin the bearing. Could barely budge it.
The pass side parts bearing (problem apparently gone) was easy as hell to spin the bearings.

Maybe the difficultly in spinning the bearings explains friction which then explains the grinding/binding sound?

While test driving the truck, I figured I should test the situation with the hubs locked. Started driving, and there is that horrible hub sound again. (NOTE: The 4x4 is the same old sound when locked in, but it IS DIFFERENT than the sound coming from the wheel bearing.)

The sound that is caused while being locked in starts around 5 mph and will stay constant at the slow speed. If I speed up, the sound also increased (not in volume, but in speed, if that makes sense). Though, at a higher speed, the sound is intermittent. About 50% on and off.

So basically, the unlocked sound is a very deep grinding sound, the locked sound is very high-pitched screetch.

The deep grinding sound is a very relatively new sound that very rapidly got worse. The locked in sound is a very old sound that very slowly got worse. (Ex: 2 years ago, I was riving on the highway at 30 mph locked in due to snow on the road. The sound occured, so I pulled over, unlocked, kept driving. Never heard the sound in 4x4 again until about half a year ago while on a trail in 4x4.)

Diagnosing these problems are now so far beyond me, but I have no other means of repair other than my abilities and the combined knowledge of everyone on YT.

Thanks again guys for helping me so much.