I have an early `91 Explorer with an auto and 4 wheel drive. For some time now I have had a rumble coming from the front that I have thought was wheel bearings. The noise is load sensitive in that it will fade or get stronger as you turn the wheel left and right. It is stronger when turning to the right and the load is put on the left front. I have replaced the front wheel bearings and races multiple times with no success.

When that clearly was not the problem I thought it was the auto locking hubs not disengaging and had damaged the differential carrier bearings. To check for that I have removed the auto locking hubs but found the rumble still there. While the hubs were off I confirmed that the axles are NOT turning so it can not be the differential carrier bearings. Additionally, I have swapped rotors and hubs from one side to the other to see if that had any impact on the situation. No luck with that either. But, I don’t know what else it could be. Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

Many thanks,

Mark

 

Mark, sounds like you've already tried the obvious things. Could it be something as simple as the tires? An aggressive tire tread will rumble, especially noticeable at low speeds.....

 

Thanks for your comments. I have the same tires on it since before the rumble started and I rotate them on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it is the tires. But, keep the thoughts coming.

Thanks,

Mark

 

Have you had the spindles checked out?
I have a 94 XLT and the right spindle along with both front bearings had to be replaced. I don't know if a bad bearing caused the spindle to need replacing or vice versa, but it did make a grinding/rumbling noise before it was fixed.

Won't swear that's anywhere close to your problem, but that's what I can think of.

 

Mark as tires wear they do get loader and you can hear them rumble how old are the tires?? Am thinking thelonerangerxlt
is correct, sometimes the tire will have plenty of tread left and just start to rumble and it never did it before tends to happend more on bigger tires i.e suv tires, truck, van

 

Evicerate,

You may be on to something here. I had not considered a spindle could actually be bad. What was the problem with your spindle and how did you determine it was bad?

Many thank,

Mark

 

Mark, an accident could have bent the spindle. You'd just about have had to hit something to bend it though. Sometimes a bearing will seize up and the race will score the spindle, but that's apparent when examining it.

On second thought, maybe the tapered portion of the spindle is worn, (where the outside bearing rolls)......

 

A bent spindle would not necessarily make the rumble sound but would cause other problems with steering and such. I think it would have to be worn for it to have this noise.

I will report back once I have had a chance to pull everything off and examine the spindle.

Mark

 

I had the shop check my spindle out. I had this horrible grinding noise from the front right. I thought it was a caliper that was stuck and not releasing.

So, shop tells me that the bearing needs to be replaced and there's heat damage? so spindle has to go too.
bearing was like $13, but spindle was $175 used.
Labor was horrible, it ended up being a lot.

My advice would be to have it checked out to prevent fruther wear if something is bad, as in my case it screwed up something else.

Hope that helps.

 

Sounds like my old truck. I think the best thing to do is drive it to the junk yard and see if they'll give you $50 for it. Good luck, sounds like you need it. :-)

Mason

 

Evicerate,

Oh, that is what I was afraid you were going to tell me. I have been looking for the price of a new spindle on various web sites and none have them so I figured it was going to be hard to find and pricey. This old truck barely deserves new tires much less pricey used parts.

Mason,

If you are the guy who sold me this POS then I have been looking for you. I think better than hoping to get $50 from some poor entrepreneur just trying to make a living I should torch it as it is driven through your living room. I remember where you live!!

Just joking everyone. Mason is my baby brother – he’s just a bit taller than me - and probably my best friend. I’m just waiting for him to discard his current Explorer so I can retire this one. With 200k miles it is getting about time to do so.

Many thanks,

Mark

 

I may need to retire my current Explorer sooner than later. How about a boneyard for spindles or is it likely they will be spent spindles, as well?

Mason

 

Well I pulled the rotors this weekend and found both spindles were, in fact, bad. I have a used set coming from a bone yard in Minnesota ($70 delivered for both) and hopefully they will get here in time for me to get the job finished over the Thanksgiving weekend. Of course I will replace the hub bearings again so that the damaged races on the current bearings will not ruin the replacement spindles.

Thanks Evicerate for sending me in that direction.

Mark