I own an 04 with 6.8l 2wd. I recently noticed a lot of chattering from the front suspension going over rough roads at low speeds. Also noticed the same at higher speeds on the highway. So, jacked up the front of the truck to get each wheel off the ground to wiggle the tire side to side and top to bottom. I noticed some play in both front wheels. Bothe wheels spin freely when in the air and no noises seem to be coming from the bearings. Any thoughts in my problem? Do the front bearings need to be repacked and the retaining nut retorqued? I have nearly 90k miles on it.

 

I would pull the bearing and inspect. If there is no visible signs of deformity, pitting, broken or missing bearings or scoring on the race, then I would repack and retorque the spindle nut.

My 2WD spindle nut seemed to "want" retorqued every 30K.

 

Maybe ball joints?

 

What's the best metod to inspect for ball joints? What am I looking at for cost to fix? Thx.