On my way home last night from dinner my truck started making a noise that i havent really heard before unless my brakes were bad but they arent becuase i just replaced them around 45 days ago. The noise is a lot worse now and what it sounds like is as if i were hitting the brakes down on a completely worn down rotor. Its a grinding noise and its coming from my passenger side tire in the front of my truck. I jacked up the truck and tried moving the tires left and right and up and down and they didnt move at all left and right and when i did them up and down, the left one moved about 1/4 inch and the right one maybe 1/2 inch back and forth but i really dont think its my ball joints, i think its my ball bearings...has ANYONE else had this problem and does anyone have a DIY for it? I think to replace my ball bearings is like 250 bucks for just the parts. ANY HELP would be greatly appreciated!

 

You can pick up the hubs on eBay for about $100ea. and if you look around, a guy is selling them with a lifetime warranty.

 

Sounds bearing(ish), but may not be a bad one, maybe just a bit dry and/or dirty and gritty. Do you play in the water much?

I'd try to repack them. I haven't had to do it on my '04, but life's events have made it so I don't "play" near as much as I used to. I had to do my '98 once while I had it, because I used to play in the slop quite often with it.

Repacking the bearings is cheap, though time consuming and a general PIA.

I have some time to be on the 'puter over the next week or so and can do a DIY if I can find some bearing removal, re-install pics on the 'net if you need it. Just based on the cost factor alone, I'd always repack the front bearings before I replaced them just to see...

 

Or you can say the hell with eBay and go here:
http://stores.channeladvisor.com/Aut...20w/Rear%20ABS

 

Have you re-packed a bearing on a 3rd gen?? Looking at them they don't look like they come apart very easily(that's going off memory anyway) I remember repacking the hubs on my old dakota but these are nothing like them. They look more sealed. But then again I never really tried to get into them.

 

You could be right, I've never done an AAM (Chrysler Corporate) axle, come to think of it, I've never done anything but a Dana, whether it be in my old Wrangler or my 2nd Gen Ram. I'll have to do some research on this and get back to y'all.
That would suck, more planned obscolescance...

UPDATE:

The old Hammer stands corrected, the AAM bearings are sealed. You'll have to change them out...

 

Gotta love it when the Corps. got ya by the *****. I remember when I had to do the front hubs in my first dodge. It was a '98 Dakota 2wd. I tore the hubs apart and had the bearings and races in my hand, pulled a Timkin number right off the race and took it to a local Timkin dealer my parents do alot of business through. Gave the guy the number and the he said, "Yup, It's a good number, but I can't get'em. Chrysler hasn't released the patent for them yet. You gotta buy the whole hub from them." It was like $275. Needless to say I cleaned , repacked them and drove another year on them. They were only a little loose.

 

I have a Craftsman 3/4 set I used with a 1 3/8 shallow socket. It slipped into the center of the hub nicely, but if the axle shaft was 1/4in longer the socket wouldn't have been deep enough. It barely grabbed the nut as it was.

 

I pulled an edit on you, lol... Again, I was relating the 3/4 drive and 1.5" socket to my doing SFA bearings, wasn't sure about a CV (half shaft) so I figured I'd keep my mouth shut before I was wrong twice in the same thread...

 

That's fine, alot of the thicker sockets won't fit into the center of the hub, he may have to try a couple till he finds one with a thin enough side wall.