97 F250 HD 2WD Auto, It's beyond me. It started with a constant highway noise/feel, mainly drivers side or at least that's where I sit right? Seemed like a rub or a light grind that was constant, annoying as H*ll. It's the kind of noise/feel that makes you look under the truck after a drive, feel the hubs for heat, start planning to pull the brakes, etc.
Well I dove in last month and did front inner and outer bearings and races, (old ones were shot, bad grease and "chromed" races 145K on the miles, none lloked to have spun tho), also brake pads, and shocks, and one inner tie rod end that was about to drop. I was so excited to drive it and feel some improvement but when I took off down the road it was the same ol same ol bad rub/light grind noise, actually has gotten worse the last 3-400 miles or so.
It's purely about the truck rolling is all there is to it. I can pull in nuetral while coasting on a grade, rev the rpmsup and down, no change. It starts on my little dirt road at about 15 or so miles an hour and just stays with you and drives you nuts till you get where you're goin. After you start to hear/feel it, it doesn't get any worse as your speed picks up, same about at 20 mph as it is at 60 mph. Now it sounds like a big hydraulic jack or some such is under the hood rattling against the frame or something. The ball joints have a little slack in em, but shouldn't make constant noise whilse driving straight down the highway, eh? I thought maybe change the front tires, but it comes in at 15 or so mph, especially if you start out on a coarse road, so the noise at such low speeds makes me think tires are not spinning enough to act up yet. Yall ever killed any front end demons like this? I'm stumped, The calipers dont seem to retract as well as they might. after setting the bearings the rotors were smooth and easy rolling, shoved the calipers on and had to pull the rotors pretty good to get em to spin. New pads, I figgered they'd wear in, I dont know. The hubs feels pretty warm after a highway run, maybe transferred heat from the pads dragging, not sure. Makes no difference right or left bends in the highway, if the truck is rolling, the sound is there. I'm asking for some more things to check, it's my daily driver. Many thanks if you have any ideas, Jay

 

may not be it at all but have you tightened your fender bolts up? Under the hood right by the hinge on top those bolts come loose. Usually don't notice it all the time but I'd check it. Just throwing an easy idea out there to check.

 

Check them bolts on the fenders that are up by the hood springs.

They like to make lots of noise.

Seeing as you have a 250, you probably have some bad spring bushings in there I would bet, with the TTB front end, if you get a bad bushing or 2, they do all sorts of strange things, axle moves around, steering goes off.

 

Fender bolts, check. No help. The sppring bushings you mentioned, is that coil springs? I'm sure a lot of that stuff is worn pretty good under there @ 145K. It starts at such low speeds 10-15mph, so strange. I even replaced the inner/outer bearings and racs a second time within 1000 miles, I got to thinking I may have cooked em with too tight of a setting the first time, no change though, it's driving me freaking nuts. Anybody austin texans see this and reccomend a sharp OBS ford front end shop to troubleshoot it? I hate to throw parts and time at it blind like. H*ll I guess these old trucks could all use a full rebuilsd under there, I just never had one do like this. BTW , what's TTB stand for. The twin beam? Thanks again, Jay

 

TTB = Twin Traction Beam. We have leaf springs in the front and the rubber bushings are shot on the springs eyes and shackles after 13 years. Pivot bushings are probably on it's last legs as my uncle's are too. Don't know that it could cause your sounds though.

Doh! 2wd didn't see that. Never mind

 

He has a 2wd William. Coil springs don't have bushings.

 

Check exhaust system for parts rubbing on frame.
Especially down pipe to passenger exhaust or at the transmission.

WAG ..

 

yeah, it's a 2wd regular 1997 F250 Hd=obs w/ 145k, not the big superduty pump rig in my sig. both 2wd tho. The engine is smooth and dry no leaks or blow by, love to keep it. I can go down the hill from my house, drop in neutral, and rev it to 3K, it doesn't change the sound. It's still there, the same, starts at 10-15 mph, makes the rubbing/light grinding sound/feel, seems like low front drivers side, if you didnt know better you'd think your power steering pump was hangin on by one bolt and just bangin around, but again, the rpms dont change the sound/ feel one bit. It's a road noise, or rolling only noise know what I mean? I even killed the eng. on a downhill long grade to see if I was nuts, still there, same level, no dif. I'm thinking about a new set of tires for the front to see if the pitch or level of the rub/grind/feel changes. Right now I've got a new(12-1500 mi) matched set of yokohama on-off road tires on her and the fronts are wearing a little funny, too early to tell on milage but may be trying to cup or feather a little on the treads, I guess that if the front end is wacked and the tires start to wear in accordingly, it can enhance/compound/intensify the whole combined problem into a road noise/rub/sound/feel from hell that will make you want to blow the truck up with C4 and walk away, but hey, I'm just frustrated. Jay

 

wheel bearings? brake caliper not releasing?

 

does it get worse when you turn sharp or go over a bump. i would check the tie rod ends too. if the rubber is torn they can make lots of noise