So, I have an intermittent grinding in my front left wheel area. It has been getting more frequent recently. It sounds kinda like what I would expect the brake shield to sound like if it was dragging on the disc or something. I had both wheels off over the weekend and everything was tight and nothing was dragging. I pulled the manual hubs off cleaned them up and lightly greased them.

Today on the interstate it got really bad all of a sudden so I pulled off the road and jacked up the tire where the noise was coming from and spun it. There really wasn't any more drag or noise. I locked the hubs and went on my way and haven't had a problem since....

Turning back and forth a little did change the noise so I'm wondering about bearings? I checked the bearings externally per the FSM and they passed that test but I'm not sure.

Any ideas?

 

Come on guys, nothing?! Ha ha

What would cause a grinding noise that could be stopped by locking my manual hubs?

 

Something to do with your hubs.....what's broke in there? Sounds like something is, but I don't have manual hubs to know what it would be.

Typical noises from that area are:
Brake pads worn out (wear indicator rubbing against rotor)? A rock stuck someplace, like between rotor and dust shield? CV joint shot? And, yes wheel bearing too.

 

Well, got the suspected problem side apart and things all look fine. I did have a question on the bearing. There seems to be some side play in the inner race but I don't know if it is acceptable. What do you think:


http://youtu.be/JFO6RPPTv4w?hd=1

 

Possibly right area as nothing moves there when locked. I wouldn't think side-play would be an issue as much as shaft-play.
My 88 did something similar but it had a brass bushing that was worn pretty bad. I glued leather shoe-string into grease journals and packed the crap out of it. That was 10 years ago and works fine today.

 

Thanks for the info SixString. You taught me something, granted I should have figured it out just by looking at it and playing with it... but the fact that when the hubs are locked, the wheel, hub and shaft should spin as one and thereby shouldn't be grinding with a bad bearing... right?

Another question now, is there a reason why my bearing looks like a needle bearing and all of the replacement bearings look to just have a smooth inner surface?