Dang!
Driving from Pittsburgh (saw Steelers/Browns game last night) back to Lancaster this afternoon heard a funny rumbling sound and vibe from right front end.
Pulled over at first available emergency pulloff and felt the hubs. Right front hot enough to cook a hamburger on.
Jack it up and discover that I can shake the wheel assembly a considerable amount.
Bearings shot on that axle!
Only 106k on the truck, too.
Called AAA and they sent a truck to haul me the rest of the way home. 117 miles. But at least the first 100 were free, so I guess that membership just paid for itself since the remaining 17 miles cost me $51.00 (plus a 20 to the driver for his good job and great speed getting me home)
I'll have to let my mechanic deal with it as I don't have an indoor area available and it is currently about 25 degrees out side.
Thats the bad news. The good news is that the Steelers won and I hopefully pulled over before damage to the axle was done. Certainly glad I was observant enough to notice it before the axle heated up and broke!

Question, though:
The brakes were very soft when I pulled over and remained so even after the heat in that axle and rotor had dissipated. Any ideas as to why that happened? I'd just like to be able to discuss it intelligently with my mechanic on Monday. I trust him, but it never hurts to have quality info with which to fuel the BS Detector.

 

Heat can (did mine when the bearing went bad) glaze the brake pad thus making them soft. You can try removeing them and knocking it off with a grinder blade on a mill or just get new pads, depending on the life left on them. I doubt you did any damage to the axle that takes alot of heat for a prolonged period of time. I know it can be done ( lost a front tire on an old Nova once) but I couldn't figure out what the noise in the front end was so I just ignored it hopeing it would go away and it did, boy did it go away!

 

I assume you meant the brake pedal was soft. I would imagine it's possible you managed to get the caliper itself so hot that you may have boiled some brakefluid. Since the wheel was wobbling chances are the rotor was laying on one pad or the other quite a bit which is effectively driving with the brake on. You will probably want to grease everything on that side - I'm going to bet the whole assembly was quite hot.

This doesn't really explain why the pedal was still soft later though. If you did mean that the brakes just weren't very effective when you stopped - the wobling rotor can do that too - Perhaps reduce your braking power by 30%.

 

Yes stopping power was reduced and the pedal was soft. Went all the way to the floor slowly.
New pads were installed in October.
Mechanic has it now. Hopefully he'll get to it early in the week. I miss being behind the wheel or seeing it in the driveway!

 

wheel bearings... very important yet one of the most overlooked maintanence routines right there next to auto tranny fluid and filter change!

those bearings need to be checked and repacked (imo) about every 10,000 miles

your brakes could feel spongey b/c the rotor assembly heated up so much that it boiled your brake fluid and now there is air in your brake lines. i highly recommend getting your brake fluid changed as well. i betcha $20 its never been done!

-cutts-

 

Thanks for all the advice, gang. I'll let you know if we ran into any additional problems during the repair.

 

Talked to the mechanic today. Should be done by tomorrow if the required parts get here tomorrow morning.
Said hub had been damaged. Also had gotten so hot that it melted the lockout parts.
I didn't drive it more than 2 miles after I noticed the problem. I was on the PA Turnpike and I knew there was an emergency turnoff just down the road, so I went that far to pull off safely. I guess I should have just pulled over immmediately. Shoot-I knew thaere was a problem, but I didn't know it was so bad so fast!
Let you all know the final fixup cost.
Looks like I'll be inspecting seals and repacking bearings every 10k from now on.
I want to check the owners manual when I get it back and see if it is a listed item. Just curious.

 

Well, news was not good.
Needed hub, spindle, lockout components (melted from heat) and of course bearings and races.
Parts = $900
Labor = $135

I guess one of the downsides of a heavy duty truck is that the parts have heavy duty prices. The hub wasn't available without a rotor attached, so that bumped that price up, too.
I saw the parts. They were fubar and had to be replaced. Having a second vehicle might have allowed me to located some parts from the local yards to save $, but I don't so I was at the mercy of the marketplace.
Wife wasn't too happy what with eating into the Christmas savings and all.
Oh well. At least I got to watch the lowly Steelers beat the brown out of the Browns.