want to see what a good wheel bearing and a bad u joint sound like?> http://www.flickr.com/photos/29654534@N05/3556777493/

 

def. not making that sound.........theres no clunks, just a swooshing sound when i had tire jacked up and spun it by hand. no sounds when driving

now im suspecting it is the wheel bearing...but theres not much up and down play, but there is back and forth play.

how did the dealer not catch this, and they showd me (2 weeks ago) the wheel bearing was fine...

but sinc yesterday she started hopping when turning right, so it ay have been ok then and its just getting worse

should i not drive it? i still dont have my fiancees maxima fixed...i have the alt. out. just looking for a cheap used one at a j/y...so her car is still out of comission

 

when you jacked the truck up did you turn the wheels to the left or right when you spun the wheels? If the joints are good the wheel will spin. The whooshing sound may just be noise from the diff. your hearing. So long as there is not growling or grinding "I" wouldn't worry about it. My joints didn't make any noise like you hear on the vid, no slapping, no play. But when I took em out, half the needles were gone and the grease was toast.

I didn't have this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt-PW78KaBs

 

^DAMN....they can spin when turning left and right .....it just has a wooshing sound, like the brake pad is touching the rotor, and the hopping when turning left and right, but if i it starts hoppin and i straighten out a little bit it dosnt hop. and it doesnt hop at all when going above 10 mph's......i have a feeling its the wheel bearing, but wouldnt there be equal play going up and down / back and forth?

 

that is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the vid clip)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVR8q_dqD7g

just found this...my wheel is no whre near this loose, so maybe it isnt the wheel bearing.

aside from wheel bearing and u-joint, what would make it hop? i know my sway bar end links are bad, and my tie rods could use replacment, but those dont make it hop do it?


(LOL i just noticed he said this is for you dodgeforum people)

 

Think of it this way. If you take a straight rod, put a slight bend in it and then roll it on the table what is going to happen? Your bent end is going to wobble up and down relative to the degree of the bend. Now put that same rod (shaft) on a car. If the U-joint is binding the bearing and cap that is worse off is going to constantly try to force the rod straighten out cause it don't wanna rotate on it's current axis. That's why you get the jump when the wheels are turned. The joint is binding causing enough flex to allow the shaft to straighten just enough to finish the rotation. The release in that pressure build up is the jump you hear/feel.

I like the wife in the back ground...feel the love. LOL "I just got this thing checked out"..."yeah right!" gotta love the wifes. haha

 

^i got my truck inspected in August, and it passed, two weeks later the divers side ball joints were completely shot (500 miles later)......and they checkd the front end lol cuz it was the garage i worked at.



when i grabbed the u joint on both parts, i tried to move them and there was slight play, nothing major though...and my wheels jump pretty good. does it take much for them to hop?
(Good info BTW)

 

I found a vid on the seized u-joint (but it's for ford, is that ok? lol) This one had one axis completely seized and was effecting steering. I would thing that before it got to that point it would have blown out the caps, but it might have and the dood just kept driving on it or it sat for a few months and rusted up. You can't really tell in the vid.

1st 1.5 to 2? minutes is all that you need to watch. This is an extreme case. But could you imagine the amount of torque you would see if you tried to drive on that with just a slight turn in the shaft?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJhrcTRMKAs

this site breaks down u-joint operation pretty basically. http://www.2carpros.com/how_does_it_...oint_works.htm

 

hey 95ram360 when i had my truck looked at they told me my ball-joints on both sides were out but only my pass. side are my driver side was the wheel bearing and mine did the same yours is doing when i had it jacked up if i spun it, it would only spin once and the pass side would spin like 4 times with the same amount of force and after i put the new one on i had to take a test drive to get it to spin freely like the pass side since it was brand new