Bad wheel bearing or what?

[daav544]

I have a 1999 dodge ram 3500 2wd dually and i started hearing what i thought was a wheel bearing when i turn left. I jacked up the passenger side and checked for any play in the wheel and felt the tiniest bit of play in the bearing(or so i thought) i did the passenger side front inner and outer wheel bearings the inner bearing race had one pea sized spot that was all fuckered up like someone hit it with something by accident, the outer looked fine but replaced them both and the seal. Well after getting everything back together it seemed to still have that little bit of play so i looked further and found the top ball joint to move ever so slightly. Well after driving the noise is still there, any idea what it could be it gets louder when turning left and almost goes away when turning right hence why i suspected the passanger side since every bad wheel bearing ive fone in the past this was how they acted if you were to turn away from it it gets loud and turning into it gets quiet. any idea what it could be? Driver side feels fine no play. Could it be the rear wheel bearings? Ive never in my life had to do rear wheel bearings on a solid axle so im kinda stumped

[IBMobile]

I've done a few rear wheel bearings over the years.   They're easy to check; jack up the rear axle put jack stans under the axle and chock (block) the front wheels.   With a helper start the truck and shift into 1st or 2ed gear.  With a mechanics stethoscope or a long screwdriver listen at the axle just behind the rear brake backing plate on both sides and compare the sound.

[daav544]

Now did you hear them while driving? Cus it only gets loud when i turn left. And it honestly really sounds like its coming from up front. Im just stumped cus i replaced the side i thought it was. Would this make sense, If im turning away from the bearing and weight transfers to that side the bearing gets louder, turning towards the bearing weight is taken off the bearing and gets quiet? Ive checked both sides and they have like no play at all im wondering if i should do the driver side too now. Ive been pretty damn good over the years at pin pointing noises on vehicals and i e even shut my truck off while driving and coasted and turned left and right and i swear its up front. Im just stumped right now, could the bearings i put in from orileys have been bad? The noise didnt change at all so i really dont think it was that bearing. I wana pull my hair out loll

[Tractorman]

Have you checked that the wheel lug nuts on both front wheels are tight?  Also, have  you checked the front wheels for any cracks?

 

- John

[daav544]

I just tightened them the other week, when i did my passenger wheel bearing 2 days ago that side got re tightened so ill have to check the driver side but i highly doubt wheels are cracked since they are factory steelies, would probably bend before cracking. The noise is driving me nuts though im like 99% positive its coming from up front. Ive had many bad wheel bearings in the pas and diagnosed them pretty easy by ear. As well as had a blown up g80 in a duramax that howled like no other so distinguishing noise from front or back is pretty easy to me

[Tractorman]

 

10 hours ago, daav544 said:

If im turning away from the bearing and weight transfers to that side the bearing gets louder, turning towards the bearing weight is taken off the bearing and gets quiet?

 

I think I know what you are saying, but since there is an inner and outer bearing on each side, I would say it like this:  When the vehicle is turned hard left, the inner bearing on the passenger side would have a lateral force placed against it while the outer bearing on the driver side would have a lateral force placed against it.

 

I think that the left front wheel bearing should at least be taken apart and inspected.  How many miles were / are on those front wheel bearings?

 

- John

[daav544]

Oh god knows whats on the driver side for miles, passenger was replaced just this week so no more that a couple hundred or so on that side, thats what ill most likely do is just do the driver side this weekend and eliminate any possibility of it being that side as well. Ive never really delt with tapered wheel bearings so idk if they get loose like hub bearings do or if they just make noise like im hearing. But one thing i can say is i ******* love the ease of replacement on them. I have a new hatred for hub bearings after replacing the passenger side on this truck it was such a cake walk compared to hubs. 

[daav544]

Update on wheel bearings. I replaced all of the front wheel bearings, inner driver one had seen some water and was a little rusty as well as the race had a divet/ marr from who knows what maybe bad install from previous owner. Anyways the noise seemed to lessen a little  but its still there and only when i turn left. Driving straight there is a faint sound but gets louder when turning left and pretty much disappears when turning right. Im stumped its driving me nuts

[Tractorman]

It might be worth a try to swap front wheels left to right to see if there is a difference in sound location.

 

What speeds do you need to attain to make the sound occur?

 

Also, is it possible that something is rubbing (not related to wheel bearings) due to the lean of your truck when turning left?

 

- John

Edited August 12 by Tractorman

[daav544]

Thats a good idea about swapping wheels, and i only need to do like 30 to hear it pretty good and i dont belive anything is rubbing it sounds like your typical wheel bearing ive also checked the caliper guards and theres ample space between them and the rotor. My fender wells just recently got new plastic clips as they didnt have all of them and once i was pulling into a parking spot and heard it rub the liner so i had fixed that already. This weekend im guna pull the wheels and calipers off again and spin just the rotor to see how they sound. When i replaced the driver side after doing the passenger which i thought was the issue the driver side made a bit of a dry bearing noise while spinning the rotor. And boy it was dry and brown from water ingress through the seal. After seeing that i was happy as a pig in **** cus i thought after the new bearing it was guna be fixed but nope lol. It seemed to get a little quieter but the noise is still there now. Same as before slight while driving straight, loud while turning left and basically gone while turning right.

[daav544]

Found the issue, so over the weekend i replaced my pinion bearings their was a decent amount of play like the bearings were too far apart from each other, i was going to take one shim out from under the outer pinion bearing but ended up being to tight so i put the same orientation of shims it had originally and with the new bearings the play was gone. Surprisingly the old bearings and races looked mint even after a ton of miles on them the way they were. Any ways i did the bearings as well as put on a whole set of new stock dually rims with good tires on it (old tires were spanked). So either it was the old set of rims and tires or the pinion bearing, im leading towards pinion bearing. Funny about the rims though i bought them a while ago with a good set of tires on them their 8x6.5 pattern but the center hole was 4.5in and not 4 3/4 in. So what did i do to get them on? I took a good rim that fits then took the new rims one by one and bolted them to that good rim like how the rears are mounted and then took a die grinder and honed out the hole to match the good rim exactly. Worked perfectly

[daav544]

Update on the wheel bearing, thought it was the pinion since it went away after fixing that but it ended up being the tires, the rims i just put on that i die grinded the centers out i had to take off cus under hard braking it would shudder real good. It was worth a shot oh well ill get them swapped to these rims. But anyway what do you think could be the reason why these old tires would make noise like this never seemed to before, possibly could be under filled on one of them and i also know that one was mounted backwards its a directional tire and they ****** up and mounted it wrong. Never noticed the noise when they were installed a while back just seems odd it would only do it while turning left maybe ill try swapping them left to right?