death vibe and grinding

[Dave]

Well recently I have noticed a slight grinding sound at the right front wheel on my truck , and then without notice two days ago a horrible vibe that only got worse the faster you went. I did some troubleshooting and found that I had blown out my rear u joint, cost me roughly 10 bucks to fix, At first I thought it was my rear differential so I dropped the pan and inspected the gears, all clean and in top order. (it was also time for a fluid change anyway). Glad to find out it was not my rear end, that is when I found the rear u joint. took me about 45 minutes to replace and now smooth as silk except for the grinding in the front, went to order my wheel bearings and found out that they are pressed in and next to impossible to do it yourself with basic hand tools( now I could have gone to work and done it there but didnt want to go to work on my day off and figure if the bearing is bad other components may be also). So I opted for the whole hub assembly. 259 dollars was the cost for a new hub so i bought a re manufactured one for 75. I took the old one off and to my surprise found it had failed due to sand in the supposidly sealed bearings. anyway installed the new hub and took it for a test drive down an old dirt road to check the 4wd, no probs and running smoother now than when I bought her. Anyway I am posting this to inform everyone of the damages sand can cause. I would recommend after a summer of beach traveling to inspect your wheel bearing and hubs for any foreign objects(sand) and clean and remove before it costs you an arm and a leg. If I were to pay to have the hub changed I would have been looking at a repair cost of over 300 dollars and being without a vehicle for a day. (one less day on the beach). so if you have any other useful info or need help with a problem of your own, just drop me a pm. thanks guys and keep em running in tip top shape.

[Steve]

Folks were reminded to take care of their hubs a while back.
Yeah, those seals are bad about letting contaminants in.
The sand grings everything down and seizes bearings.

Here's the read:
http://www.atlanticanglers.com/forum...-your-rig.html

[Dave]

Steve good post, I did not know it had been previously been done. Anyway I also figure with gas prices the way they are heading maybe a post on getting your engine in top shape and sipping fuel.