I have some mystery noise coming from the front end of my truck that I cant seem to figure out. I am hearing a clunking noise that seems to get faster with speed. From a dead stop, I hear clunk clunk clunk that seems to occur with every turn of the wheel until I am going fast enough that its more of a rumble and it causes vibrations. I suspect the front u joints, but figured I would ask here to see if someone else might have an idea. I changed the drivers side hub assembly last weekend, and have noticed the sound since then.

Any ideas? I would like to get it fixed soon, but I dont want to just throw parts at it.

Just noticed on my way home from work...it seems to stop when I let off the gas. Everytime I get on it..I hear it. When I let off, it instantly goes away.

 

Mine did that and needed sway bar bushings

 

Well I know those are bad. Those only seem to make noise when I hit a bump. The noise I am hearing seems to be in relation to the turning of the tires.

I started investigating this morning, and noticed that the driver side locking hub has about 1/4 inch of movement in it, compared to the passenger side, which has none. I grabbed the stub axle between the hub assembly and the axle housing and was able to get movement there too. Is it possible that the old needle bearing wore a groove in the stub axle and is causing the noise? I have gone as far as temporarily wiring the stub axle to not move while driving to see if the noise stopped, but it was still there. Its there in 2 and 4 wheel drive, with hubs locked and unlocked. Im at my wits end here...and its driving me nuts. Can anyone help?

And now to top it all off...my double cardan joint is now squeaking on my driveshaft. Seems as though once I fix one thing...something else breaks.

 

Did you replace the washers and snap ring after you put on the new hub assembly?Just thinking out loud.

 

Take a real close look at the U-joints at the wheels. Sounds like one's bad.
It's not uncommon for the hub-locks to get jammed (you turn it to free and it doesn't unlock). That might be tricking you, as it did me. You think it's unlocked but it's not. It's still spinning the (maybe) bad U-joint. Get in there with a decent pry-bar and see whats happening.

 

Yep. Made sure everything went in the way it came out.



I pulled the lockers off and checked to make sure they were actually unlocking this morning when I was investigating. They did lock and unlock like they were supposed to. I can manually turn the stub axles, so I know for sure they are unlocked. I also marked the front driveshaft to see if it was turning while in 2 wheel drive, and its not. I think once my camera battery is charged, I will take some video of what its doing and post it. Ive done everything I can think of to troubleshoot this issue.

 

Sounds like you've done all the things I would've.
Now I guess in order to verify that the hubs aren't making the noise, you could swap 'em with another truck (if possible) or take them out and drive the truck DO NOT USE 4X4 WITHOUT THE HUBS INSTALLED THOUGH.

edit:
I wonder if youve got a smoked wheel bearing (hub)? Have you jacked the truck up and checked for wheel bearing play? Of course that usually comes with a humming, groaning, rumbling sound...

 

I pulled the locker off and drove around the block...but noise is still there.

Here is a video of the play I am getting in the axle.

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IX1FCWUDyC8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And here is a video of the noise I am getting. At about 12 seconds into the video you can hear it.

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TTFhudzpRZc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

there should be a little free play, But i think your inner hub/ axle needle bearings may have gone south..

 

was your hubs locked in mine would clunk if the hubs were locked in found out the carrier was cracked in half which wiped out the ring gear

 

Well that sucks...its brand new. The one thing I didnt check when I replaced the hub assembly was if the old needle bearing(or lack thereof)had worn a groove in the axle shaft. Now Im starting to worry that it might have.

I have noticed that I only hear it when I accelerate, and it immediately stops as soon as I get off the pedal. I have been suspecting a lot of different things going wrong, but one that keeps sticking out is the rear drive shaft. I know the double cardan joint is bad since its squeaking like crazy. I wonder if it might be the ujoints on the drive shaft might be bad as well. Im working on getting all the parts together to fix that, and Im hoping that once I get that fixed, my noises will go away and I can start working on more important issues on the truck.

I just dont want to start pulling parts and end up spending a lot of money to chase down a noise.

 

i lost a wheel bareing before on the rear and dug into the housing which ruined the housing