I've had a low frequency growl recently at highway speeds. At times the frequency will rise and fall. It's not as loud if I coast in neutral. Just twice in a parking lot I could hear a brake rub sound with sharp, low speed turns. I will have time to check this weekend but need to know how to tell when the bearings are bad. Don't want to spend $400 on the fronts only to find a $20 fix later. Also Wheels are balanced but could use an alignment check. Any help/suggestions always appreciated.

Paul

 

Well,I never worked on a 4x4 front end,just replaced them on 2 wheel drives and my front wheel drive hub bearings on my daily beater driver, a 91 Merc sable,started hearing a growl,went to large parking lot,picked up speed and neutral and made circles and it will tell which side is growling,now other than that I would say tear it down if you think it is bearings,and look at them manualy. Someone with 4 wheel experience might shed some more light,goodluck Rick

 

Feel your hub...after driving if a bearing is going bad the hub will be warm or even hot as compaired to the other side

I have found trailer bearing going bad by walking around and feeling the hubs after I stop...just last week when I got home I found a hub that felt warm compaired to the others, when I pulled that hub down I found the inter bearing was startin to go bad

 

jack up the front and take your tire off and then grab the hub and see if their is any movement. if their is then thats your problem. due to my experiences hate to tell you this but thats what it sounds like. I believe you can get the 2500 hubs from napa it is all one piece bearing assembly. 3500 ones come only from the dealer

 

Yes you can feel for heat, but useually those are really bad, and almost ovious. I like to jack up the front (both sides or one at a time) and rotate the wheel, it should turn smoothly, without noise, or vibration. If you grabe the wheel at the top and bottom, try and move it back and forth, it should not move. Also while turning the wheel, look for wobble as the wheel is spinning.

 

Everyone is right on with checking for hot hubs with your hands after driving and also jacking up your front and feeling for excess slop in tire movement. By placing your hands on the top and bottom of the tire and trying to feel for any play (side to side movement might be linkage not bearings) the tire should move very little. It has to or your bearings would burn up. If you check with the tire off you shouldnt be able to feel any play but with the tire on you have more leverage. If you see any wobbling you are lucky the tire is still on the axle!

 

I had one go bad in April. It had a weired sound to it, Did'nt have the typical noise. I checked it out by grabing the tire and looking for movement. Did'nt have any. Finaly just replaced it and the noise went away. The sound mine made is very hard to discribe. Napa is where i got my replacenent.

 

Thanks for all the great info. Wasn't at work to respond before now. For now the trucks parked and will get to it this week. Sure hope it's not the bearings or any major $$.

Paul

 

what kind of bearings are in the 4x4 front end? are they sealed? or can you take them out and repack them?

i have only done bearing jobs on 2wd dodges. how do you do the 4wd models?

 

here are some pictures of the front hubs I took when I was doing my rotor changeout. The front bearings are a sealed unit

http://www.geocities.com/palmerlives...ubService.html

Ricki

 

whats an estimated cost on a set of bearings?