Last week i noticed that there was a slight wine coming from the front end of my truck. well it got a lot worse this week and turned from a wine to a loud clicking at low speeds and a vibration and higher speeds. i jacked up the rear end and there was nothing coming from the tranny, drive shaft or rear end. I then jacked up the font end and didnt find any excsive play in any of the u joints. The only thing that was a little off is the left tires didnt spin as eazy as the right. I really dont want wait for somthing to wrong but i dont want to pay 300 pluse dollers of a hub if i dont need it

 

anyone have one go out

 

Sounds like you are on the right track to me. My hubs didn't go out but I changed them at 126,000 miles to go to the Dynatrac setup. In the process I found the axle U joints were shot. That is probably not causing your vibration but the driveline U joints up front could. It might be hard to confirm bad U joints unless they are really bad with obvious looseness or dripping rust.

If you can't pin it down for sure, you could pull the caliper to remove the brake pad drag and spin the wheel. If they sound like they are grinding or have any play you may have found it. I think I'd pull the driveline first and look for play or binding in the joints.

John

 

I just replaced a u joint in my passenger side axle shaft. It wasn't sloppy, but was binding up. I couldn't rotate the tire by hand if the steering wheel wasn't straight ahead.

 

For what it is worth, RockAuto.com sells the assy. cheaper than anywhere else. For my 98 non abs, they were $132 plus $15 sipping apiece. I wish i would have known this before i paid $300 for one. It is even the same timken number listed right on the website as the one on the box that i bought so i know they are the not cheap knockoffs. Tim