So ; I'm far from home whizzing down the freeway when the right front wheel groans a bit , stops , does it again then goes silent . When I get home I jack up & block the right side and remove the wheel , noticing it has a thin film of grease on it , I de - grease the aluminum wheel & set it aside , retract the brake pads by using a BIG old C Clamp I bought @ Harbor Freight for just this purpose , the outer bearing rumbled *slightly* when I spun the rotor but worse , the rotor had over .040" wobble at it's oput edge & the pads were wearing un equaly so I pulled it all aprt and discovered the last DPM re - used a cotter pin about the 6th time & left the bearing castle nut 90° (that's 1/4 turn folks) loose to boot , plus he'd used a hammer instead of a seal driver to install the grease seal last time so it was bent & rubbing on the spindle..... I'm glad I took the time to look before hitting the road next Thursday ! . I bought new disc pads & grease seals as the bearings , although improperly lubricated were American made and in good shape (no brinneling evident) so I cleaned everything up & re - packed the inner & outer bearings , buttoned up one side and hope to get the other one done to - night after work . I don't know how to explain the proper method of hand packing roller bearings , I'm sure there's a video on Poo-Tube as it's really important . Or , just buy a $5.00 bearing packer & use your grease gun with Moly bearing grese in it , NOT chassis lube ! .
I hate all the crap that PO's do to our trucks! When I pulled my 14 bolt FF apart to my surprise all the 30yo bearings were perfect... now the front axle is another story, I guess jumping sand dunes takes its toll on a little 10 bolt. Glad to hear you got it all back together like its supposed to be!
Yabbutt ; There's still an occasional noise & faint vibration @ 55 ~ 60 MPH , it goes away when I put in the clutch but doesn't seem to be coming from the tranny nor rear end.... I'm just back from driving it in the torrential rains , up to Fremont , Ca. , I was supposed to drive it to Salem , Oregon but when it began to SNOW , in San Fransico no less , I packed it in and came back home to - day , only to run into a snowstorm on The I-5 Grapevine ,it's -still- snowing up there now . - I feel lucky to have gotten through it before I needed chains & what not . The 34 year old truck of course , ran _flawlessly_ as all GM products are wont to do . I'll do a fuel mileage check soon , prolly over 10 MPGs .
Their getting snow right now? A couple weeks ago we got about an 1/2" of snow but that was it, today it was around 81*. I love Texas!
_EVERYONE_ Loves TEXAS! (duh) I guess I didn't have to tell -you- that . Anyways , as I was typing my response Saturday , SWMBO was watching the news and Lo ! it began snowing in Inglewood , a suburb of L.A. . What next ?! .
Thank you ! I've actually considered that over the years and right now my buddy is pimping me an abandoned shop in Del Rio where I could live & have my junkyard.... I love wide open , empty West TEXAS best...
