Hey guys, need some opinions. Truck in grinding in the front end. Im not a total idiot at this stuff, so this is what I know:

Both hubs are new, ujoints are new. front end is tight minus steering box (damn thing anyways).

I jacked up the truck, and I can rotate the driver side axle and i can hear a slight metal on metal on sound. With 4x4 engaged i can rotate the axle and I can barely feel a slight imperfection in the rotation. Any idea what could cause something like this is the diff?

Thanks guys

1999 ram 1500, 360, 3.92 gears, auto

 

You did not mention brakes. How are the brakes? Dust shields, etc.

 

Well I had the whole caliper off when I turned turned the axle and heard the noise. I also removed both calipers and looked at the brake pads. Nothing abnormal.

Might be a seperate issue, but on the passenger side when I take the caliper on and off I notice the bolts are a little scewed and I can see the caliper moving as i turn the bolts in. The caliper bolts are cross threaded it appears. Brakes work fine though, do not pull or anything. I can spin both tires and dont hear anything I shoudnt.

 

So on the way home I put it in 4wd, and immediately it vibrated badly. Definitely undeliverable.

I've never experienced death wobble, not sure if it is coupled with a grinding noise?

 

Death wobble, and grinding are probably unrelated. Using 4x4 on a high traction surface is just a bad plan.

Take a look at the u-joints in the front driveshaft, especially at the doubled joint. I don't think that's your grinding, but, might be at least part of your vibration.

Grinding is going to be a bearing, or something rubbing.

How long ago were the hubs replaced? Were the axle nuts properly torqued? (I think it's like 180 ft/lbs.....)

 

Thanks for the reply Heyyou

One is about 8 months old and one is brand new, few weeks old. I never used a torque wrench when I put it back on... If I over tightened this nut grinding is a possibility?

 

Probably not as likely as if it wasn't tight enough.

Can you tell which side the noise is coming from? How fast ya gotta be going before you start hearing it?

 

Yes it sounds like the driver side. And like I said when I had it all apart, I spun the axle with the hub off and could hear a faint 'clinking' noise.

 

Starts probably 15-20km/hr

 

Faster than you can run beside it.....

Is that the most recent one to be replaced? If so, see if you can warranty it out.