front wheel bearings and ujoint issue SOLVED (I think...)

[dennhop]

Ok, so for the past couple of months now, I've been driving intermittently, with a howling sound, accompanied by an occasional clunking, driving at speeds over 40, 45 mph. Straight line driving, turning didn't seem to make a difference. I've got the EMS offroad kit on the front of my 96 3500, with Warn manual lockouts, and I suspected the bearings. here is the sequence of events of what I replaced.1. Inner and outer wheel bearings and races. Stubshaft Ujoint (no difference)2. Spindle bearing and seals. (no difference)3. Inner and outer wheel bearings and races (again) (no difference)4. Spindle bearing and seals. (no difference)Now, after all of this, and playing with the hub, the tire, and everything else I could think of, I was driving back after about a 2 hour drive, and as I started getting close to home, I noticed that along with the noise, it started binding on me as I was trying to turn to the right. This verified that I'd been in the right place, just what was it now?The next day, I lifted the front of the truck, and placed it on jackstands, so both tires were off the ground. Spinning the tire, no noise. Grabbed it top to bottom, and tried to shake it, no play whatsoever. So the bearings were good. Turned the wheel to the right, and spun tire, nothing. Engaged the hubs, and watched the stubshaft turn, it spun. However, when I tried to spin the stubshaft by hand, it seemed to be binding up more so than the passenger side. After some research, I noticed that it seems to be a common issue after installing new ujoints, that they don't flex properly, until you hit the ears with a hammer. I've never had an issue with a Ujoint binding on me before after replacement, so I never thought to do that. I went ahead, pulled the whole thing apart, slid the ujoint out, and sure enough, it was stiff in one direction-even after letting it go, it wouldn't drop on its own. So I went ahead and hit it with a hammer, on the ears of the yoke, until it loosened up and was free in all directions. Then I put it back in. I torqued the inner locknut down to 50 ft lbs, backed it off 90 degrees, and retightened to 15 ft lbs. (Now here's where I can't tell you exactly what seems to have fixed it...)Before, when I was trying to line up the little tab with the slip ring, I was turning the locknut clockwise-ie tightening it. It was only a matter of less than a 1/4 of an inch, so I didn't think anything of it, but this time, I decided to go the other way, when I was lining up the tab with the notch. Once I got the inner locknut tightened, and then the slipring on, I went ahead and installed the outer locknut. Before, I was trying to do it right, with the torque wrench, which called for 150-180 ft lbs of torque, however, I couldn't keep the socket on the nut doing that...it kept twisting and popping off. This time, I went ahead and hit it with the impact, which allowed me to keep it on the nut, and apply more than 115 ft lbs of torque. Everything else back together, and test drive. I took it up to 70 mph, without any extra noises, rubbing, whatnot. So, hopefully that fixed the issue! Long post, but I felt someone else out there, like me, might just need to know some of what I learned over the course of this 2 month long fiasco!