ok guys i have a huge problem .. here it goes my lil brother brought me his neon aasked me to put on 2 new wheel bearings an 2 new tie rods no problem or so i thought. i had the driver side wheel bearing replaced pressed out old an pressed in new. then i took off driver side tie rod an put on the new one. went over to passenger side and took off tire, rotar, andcaliper. as it turns out his passenger side wheel bearing was good so i left it alone with his permission. but i did change the tie rod as it was bad. well everything went right back together as it should everything is torqued down nice n tight. now there is another problem that accured some were in all of this?? when he drives the car it grinds pretty good. you can hear it when its in idle but not very loud at all an maybe not even the same noise that we are hearing when we r driving it?? now within all this there is 3 things i am a little worried about that may or may not be causeing this problem. 1 being the drive shaft to driver side can move in and out about 1/2 inch to 1 inch back n fourth .......is this ok??? 2 being that on the driver side before i removed his tie rod the long part of the tie rod the "bar" i accidentally turned it maybe 3 turns out......but i spung it back 4 turns just to be sure i wasnt like unscrewing it or what ever......is this ok???? 3 being that the passenger side rotar has a few small grooves wore into it because it looks like someone put on a driver side caliper on the passenger side just upside down... it just does not look right at all like its upside down but it bolts in and works......is this ok for now??? now keep in mind it did not grind at all like this till we done all this please tell me what we done?? or could have done??? he is sooooo pissed at me an himself he asked me to just shove it off the cliff please please help me sry for such a long post

 

ps i do know that th wheel bearing is good i know that for sure but the biggest part of the grinding noise we are hearing is on the driver side but only when driving it and i dont work on front wheel drives a whole lot just my caravan and expedition and the good old reliable dodge aspen i love that car parts are vey cheep an easy to work on has a nice slant super six with holley carb has the 318 not the 225

 

what i recomend is to go over ur steps and double check what u changed Ect and if its grinding while in idle,,its probably ur drive shaft thats not all the way in,,i seriously dont see anything else,,and if it doesnt grind in idle well u mentioned ur caliper,maybe its grinding on ur wheel or something,,,i hope i helped u out,,,give us some news,,good luck.

 

thats just it i dont get it?? would it be hard to remove the drive shaft??? for driver side to check for metal shavings or anything?? i have taken the pan off the transmission no metal shavings other than normal wear n tear on gears his magnet in the pan was almost completly clean an nuthing siny in his fluid????


thank you john


anyone els have an idea?

 

the drive shaft isnt to hard 2 remove just take off ur tie rod and ur drive shaft bolt,,,can u get a pic of the caliper???but the nois u hear could be coming from the passenger side 2 cause the noise can travel though the front end makingu think its the drivers side,,,?????did u pull the wheels off and see if there is grinding marks on the ineer of the wheels???

 

yeah i checked the inside of the rims an rotars both an they look just as they did when i first took them off no i doubt i can get pics but i will try for sure first thing tommorow its getting awfuly late tommorow and i am gonne get up early an start back on it he has to have his car for work monday if not he is fired if he misses thats why he is sooo pissed

anyone els have a thought?

 

I'd say the tie rods are definetly not the problem. You said the drive shaft moves back and forth 1/2 to 1 inch.That is not normal.If you replaced the drivers side wheel bearing, then you must have taken the hub assembly off.Once the hub assembly is off, getting the drive shaft out is just a matter of turning it slightly while tugging on it.It should pull out from the transmission relatively easy.I would make sure you reassembly it correctly.There is a washer then a nut that goes on the driveshaft, and that nut must be tightened pretty tight.Grab the tire while its on the car and shake back and forth, up and down to check for any slop.There should be virtuallly none.
Another thing you can try to do to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. Is lifting the front of the car off the ground and putting it in gear to get wheels spinning and see if you can hear exactly where the sound is coming from.Obviously use a lot of caution if your testing this way.Im sure you can figure it out with a bit of research.Good luck

 

I'd go with the new wheel bearing was destroyed when it was pressed into the knucle or the hub was pressed into the bearing. The half shaft is located in the transmission by a spring clip. You can remove it by tugging on the shaft but the jounts might pop apart. The best way is to gently pry between the x-mission case and the inner cardigan joint housing. (The bulgy thing).
As to the inner tir rod part spinning, I'm not up on Neons because I haven't had to do mine yet. On a Ford Tarus the inner end has a ball and socket type joint that attaches to the rack assembly. You can spin it with no ill effects to the steering geometry(toe in).

Also, if there is no noise when the front wheels are off the ground with the car in gear it is wheel bearing.