Hey everyone,

So I rebuilt the knuckles on my 85 pickup and took it for a drive. Drove it on the freeway and city streets. 20 mins in when making a slight right turn a loud wind-up sound came from the front end with a loud pop. I pulled over and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I'm worried continuing to drive it will ruin the axle. The wind-up sound was like when kids would put a playing card in the spokes of their bicycle then a loud pop. It is fine until another slight right turn. The front passenger side wheel is harder to rotate than the driver's side. I'm wondering if anyone can advise on what I should check out first. I realllly don't want to open everything back up if I don't have to. Any ideas on what could possibly be going on?

Thank you!!

 

A quick thing to check out is see if one of the hubs is engaged.

 

Bearing preload etc was set up correctly?
greased the birfs?

 

Thanks for the responses guys. They are automatic hubs so I don't think one side is engaged (I haven't been able to find much info on how they work). No one seems to believe that it has auto hubs, but it does. I pulled both apart a found the plastic ring, that covers the torx bolts, was cracked on the passenger side. It is hard to believe something that small made the noise that it did while driving it so I'm not too sure it was that.

I couldn't test the preload because the tie rod (?) would NOT come off with all the hammering I did. Sorry, I don't know all the suspension part names yet. I put the shims back exactly how they were. I definitely greased everything up. There was drag on the passenger side when turning the wheel, so I loosened the spindle nut a bit. I'm going to drive it again tomorrow and see if it happens again.

 

First thing I think of is someone put later hubs on (autolocking) and they don't fit. There is a difference between early axle hubs and the later axle hubs. I could be wrong though.

 

pretty sure the spline count is different.
however that wouldn’t stop someone from installing auto hub outers

you need to make sure the preload is set correctly or you are gonna toast your bearings etc
Roger Brown has an awesome write up at 4crawler.com

 

It's an 85 SR5 so I guess there was a limited amount that were made with auto hubs and sunroofs. I drove it and it didn't make that crazy noise so I think I tighten the locking hub nut too tight on the passenger side. Will do on the preload. Thank you all for your advice! I really appreciate it.