So as I drive, my passenger front wheel woobles about 3 inches left and right so I jacked up my truck and found that the wheel has play up and down and side to side. So as I am replacing the wheel bearing, I noticed that the shaft can be pulled out... Is that supposed to happen? And also the whole hub you can move left to right and up and down.

Truck is a 1997 1500 with the 5.9.

Any help would be great thanks

 

assuming its 4wd, yes, the axle shaft just slides in/out of the axle tube. its held in only by the big 1-11/16" nut on the end of the stub shaft. when you change your bearings, be careful not to pull the axle out of the tube. if you do, be very gentle putting it back in, so as to not rip the axle seals inside the tube at the diff (driver side) or at the cad (pass. side).
see here...
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/hub.php

 

The thing is that even after I replaced the bearing and hub, there is still lots of play in the wheel and tire. What could cause this?

 

If the tire still moves up and down, it's the ball joints. If it has a lot of play left to right, it could be steering gear, tie rods,trac bar, intermediate shaft. You have to check all the steering components .

 

More than likely its the balljoints espesially if they are the stock ones.

 

Actually it's all those things if they are original!

 

+1 on the ball joints being the culprit!