On my 94 f150 auto 4x4 i noticed a moan whenever my when turning to the right and a slight vibration underfoot when going about 45 and over. Now its a deep groan and the vibration has
gotten worse. I took the tire off and im able to grab the hub (thing with the allen key bolts and says 4x4 on it) and wiggle it with quite a bit of play. My friend said i just need to tighten down the hub. Any other ideas on what this could be?

 

Sounds like it could be wheel bearings. When you say you can wiggle it, you mean the whole hub or just the chrome end piece?

 

If you mean the entire hub, and not just the lockout unit on the end, then you're looking at bearing problems. Since they're making noise, vibrating, and grinding then it's too late to just tighten them up... consider them junk and get some replacement bearings and races. DON'T keep driving it like this, unless you also want to end up buying a new spindle and possibly a new hub also. These bearings are telling you that they're fixin' to fail, which means they'll lock up and spin the races, which trashes the hub and usually wrecks the spindle too. This is why it's important to service the hubs regularly, or after driving thru deep water.

Now if it's just the lockout itself, a little play in them is normal.

 

If it is just the lockout a VERY little bit of plsy is normal. If it's very noticeable then it probably isn't sealing the hub very well and you could be getting water and other road crud into the hubs and bearings. That's probably worth addressing too.

 

Ok so a little more info... it doesnt have a lot of wiggle, most of the play is just back and forth. Quite a bit of play at that... i took the hub out, then the lock ring, then the nut behind it, but unclear of what to take out next?

 

Ok tightened up the second spindle nut, it wad hiding from me a bit. Wheel bearing was being a PITA so i greased it as best i could and threw everything back together. It took all of the slop out of my hub/rotor. Ive still got a little noise/ vibration but not anywhere near as bad. Im pleased, i only need this truck to serve me for the next few months untill bootcamp anyway then it will be my hunt truck.

 

Ok well I finally got around to pulling the wheel bearings... The races seemed fine nothing visibly wrong with them or the bearings either.. I still have a moan after repacking them with grease... Is the bearing supposed to sit loosely in the race under the oil seal? It didn't have any side to side play in the race but I was able to just pull the bearing out with my fingers after pulling out the oil seal. The outer bearing was the same way, just fell out. Is this normal or are the bearings supposed to be pressed into the races? Also since I still have the moan should I just replace the bearings anyway even though there was nothing apparently wrong with them (no metal shavings, scoring, heat marks, etc)?

 

Let me get this straight? You've pulled it apart 3 times now and even repacked the old bearings. A cheap set of bearings and a new seal might run 35 bucks or so at autocrap. For that amount of work is it really worth that much time, with noisy bearings to save that little money? As stated above, if you spin a race, or trash a spindle, you'll really wish you had spent the few dollars. Just my opinion. Sorry

 

Nonono i just tightened the spindle nuts the first time. I didnt know all i had to do was take off the last nut and the whole hub would come off. Then yesterday i decided to go back in, thats when i pulled the bearings out. Ive never done this before so i didnt know if the bearings needed to be pressed back in or of being loose was normal or what. So i just repacked them and put them back the way they were. It only took me about 20 minutes to pull off the hub so it wasnt a tremendous waste of time. I have new bearings and oil seals ready to go. I just didnt know if the bearings were causing my noise since they looked ok, as well as i had no clue what i was doing haha.

 

Yes, that's normal. The spindle nut is what loads the bearings so they aren't loose. Once the spindle nut is off the outer bearing isn't held on at all so it just flops out. Sometimes the inner bearing will get stuck to the spindle and make it hard to pull the hub off, but other than that it's not held into the race either (except loosely by the inner seal)

 

If the rollers looked great, I mean look closely when they're CLEAN, they are fine. NO pitting or visible/tangible marks are acceptable. Same for the races that are pressed into the hub itself. If you don't know what you're doing (hey, you said it), do some research. The info is out there... That said, did you actually repack the bearings with grease or did you just plop some grease on the outside of them?

When I set up front end tapered wheel bearings, after thorough cleaning, I pack the bearings, set the inner bearing in place, drive the new seal, lube the seal lips, coat the spindle, slide hub onto spindle, install outer bearing, install inner bearing preload nut. Next install caliper, mount wheel, spin wheel several times. Tighten down inner bearing preload nut until snug (pushes grease out from between rollers and races for a true "seat"), spin wheel, check for play. I back the inner nut off until there is some play, then install lock ring, install outer lock nut (torque to ~140ft lbs), spin wheel, check for play. If there is no play, I remove the lock nut & lock ring, back preload nut off just enough to engage the next lock ring hole, install lock ring, install lock nut & torque it. Spin wheel, check for play. Looking for the preload that gives the smallest amount of play possible with the lock nut torqued down (I've found torquing the lock nut snugs up the preload nut too, so prior to lock nut torque the end play of the bearing is seemingly substantial). Once that is achieved, I install the hub lockout, torque the wheel lugs, and do the other side. It probably took me longer to type this response that it does to actually set the bearing preload.

Before anyone jumps on me for setting up a wheel bearing with end-play, that is how I was taught by a very knowledgeable, lifelong Ford mechanic. This website has a nice discussion on bearing preload too: bearing preload practice

Doing that I logged 215k on my factory wheel bearings, with plenty of abuse. They weren't trashed but I had a long trip ahead of me and I didn't want to chance anything, so new Timkens went in.

 

yeah the bearings looked fine which is what is bothering me. I can still hear the wheel bearing noise but I don't know if wheel bearings are the issue. I'm going to pull them out and just replace them just to say I did if nothing else.

 

I have a strange vibration I've been chasing that shows up in the floor boards at various speeds, more often right after lifting my foot off the throttle. Since I had just replaced front wheel bearings a few months prior, I figured those must be fine. I replaced rear driveshaft u-joints (no change), then I rebuilt my t-case because I assumed it had to be that (even with 216k miles everything looked great in there--had already bought the parts though so it was rebuilt). When that didn't fix it, I found it's due to worn pinion bearings in the rear axle (they're not loose enough to detect visually, but when I tightened up the pinion nut 1/8th turn in the name of diagnostics the sound went away for about 3 days). These things can be tough to pin down sometimes.. Hope you can find the issue.

Make sure you replace the races in the hubs too. I just use a 12" piece of brass rod (bearing race driver) and a hammer. The driver is softer than the races and won't hurt them. A press would be ideal, I just don't have one yet.