OK fellas I am stumped here. My 1999 has 83k on the clock and has a scrape/grind in the front end that is bugging me to death. I am about to put some serious miles on it, and need a remedy. Here is a list of symptoms:
1-When I turn to the right, I can feel a grinding which seems to be coming from right under the drivers front. It can only be felt/heard below 20mph.
2-The front pads are brand new, and it was doing this a bit before the replacement.
3-The scraping seems to be worse when the front end is compressed. Like when I turn and brake, you can hear it pretty well and definetly feel it in your feet.
4-When going slow and coming to a stop, I can feel it scraping, and it almost sounds like something is vibrating/grinding under the truck.
5-When I hit the throttle, the scraping cannot be felt or heard virtually at all.
6-It does not do it all the time. Sometimes Ill get in and drive and it will not make the noise at all???
Sorry it is really hard to put it into words. It would be much easier to just let you drive it
At first I was thinking wheel bearings, but my neighbor says that is really low miles for that. Could it be something with the powersteering? I know the original owner, and it has not been dogged, and was taken care of well.

I am just looking for a bone here, and maybe somebody out there in this great cummins world can help a man out. Where should I look?

Sorry to write so much, but thanks all.

 

Could be a wheel bearing. Check u-joints, and dust cover for disc brakes, they could be bent and rubbing on rotor. this has happened on the rear of my truck.

 

check for loose plastic wheel liner or something that could be rubbing on the tire. raise the wheel off the ground and spin the wheel and see if wheel bearing is bad

 

2WD / 4WD If it sounds like a bearing and is louder when loading (turning and breaking) suspension then it probablly is a bearing. Sorry about your neighbors thoughts. You probablly won't hear it with load off. If really bad will feel slop in bearings while shaking wheel.
Fill out signature more complete.

 

Take it for a spin for about 10 minutes and try to provoke the scraping sounds- then stop it and immediately check the temperatures of the different front end parts- try not to brake for the last 2-3 minutes of the spin, the heat from the disks will mess up your results- I usually just move my hand slowly towards the part to be checked.
The wheel bearings usually have a longer life, but if the seal of the bearing gets damaged the grease will come out and it will fail very fast.

HTH

AlpineRAM

 

Awesome I am going to check all this stuff out fellars... Will let you know

 

Might be the brakes to.
If the slide pins are not sliding, you can wear down a set of front pads in no time.

 

If you find out it's the bearing, let me know I have a good used one I'll let you have, just pay for shipping. I replaced it thinking it was bad but it actually was the control arm bushings that were shot allowing the axle to move, pop and make noise.

 

i have the same problem. Changed both front wheel bearings and still have it. Real loud pop when turning to the left. Mine is on the passenger side though.

 

I am having the same problem. It is starting to be a pain in the ***. My symptoms are almost identical to Taxidermyman. Really loud when turning right or when pulling a trailer(could be just actually steering to right from pull). I orderd new right side hub assy and did not fix it. Sometimes it wont make noise at all until drove for a while.Hard right donuts in parking lot= loud noise. Hard left donuts= no noise. These things are to expensive to shotgun parts at. Hopefully sombody will see this and enlighten us. Tim

 

From what I've experienced the poping sound normally means it's the ball joints going bad.

 

I also have had a scraping noise on slow right turn and upon braking while going slow. I could swear it was coming from the drivers side wheel area. Last night I crawled under there to take a look. I was noticing how close the tolerance was for the rod end etc to the wheel. I decided I would look at the other side just to satisfy my curiosity that the tolerance was that close. What did I find but a rub/scrape on the inside of the pass side wheel, So that had to be the source of the noise. I pulled the tire off and saw that there was a scrape on my caliper. Upon closer inspection I see that the caliper seems a bit loose. Turns out the caliper sliding pin/bolt had come out. I think oh boy easy fix compared to what was running through my mind. Run down to NAPA get a new set, 28.00 darn bucks for two bolts and two sleeves. Go to put it in and it wont go in. Then I realize it hadnt fallen out it had broken off. So I took the caliper off drilled into the remaining piece and stuck a screw extractor in it and it came right out. Put in a new one and was off and running.

 

This is mostly a bump back to the top but i did go to the tranny and diff shop obout an hour ago and took the guy for a ride. He said he had never heard anything like that before that new hub assmemblies didn't fix. From just laying on the creeper he couldn;t find anything wrong. I will have to drop it off next week so he can get it up on the lift and put it in gear and try to track down where the noise is coming from. Agitated in Illinois

 

I had the same noise that you are experiencing and took it to the dealer and they could not find the problem at first. They kept the truck for two days and put it on the lift then on a dyno and determined it was the U-Joint's. It's been perfect ever since.

 

Thanks for the info. I know this is not my thread, but i am getting desperate for info to get this fixed before i start thinking it is time to let it go. I imagine taxidermyman probably feels the same way. I am going to put on lift this weekend a check it out myself. I will probably go ahead and replace u-joints just to try and eliminate possible causes. Tim