2002 Ram 1500 Wheel bearing noise / howl and replacement without cv shaft removal
Thread Starter
|
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 11
Likes: 0
2002 Ram 1500 Wheel bearing noise / howl and replacement without cv shaft removal
I thought this might be helpful for anyone with similar problems as I ran across bits and pieces of my issue on forums, but never all in one place.
I recently bought a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 Sport crew cab with 29,xxx miles on it, yep, 29,xxx. The truck sat quite a bit especially in the later years as he eventually couldn't drive at all (which is why it was 10 yrs old with such low mileage, car fax checked out etc).
When I test drove it, it had what sounded like tire howl from an aggressive tread pattern. The Michelins on it were somewhat aggressive, and I chalked it up to that. I figured what could be wrong in the drivetrain/suspension with less than 30k on the clock.
After purchasing truck and paying more attention to howl noise it just didn't seem like tire noise and the tires just didn't seem aggressive enough to be it. But the sound didn't change at all when turning hard left or right at decent speed as you would expect from wheel bearings. I happened to have another set of rims and tires from another truck I bolted on and same exact sound. So now I knew it wasnt tires.
I didn't want to start throwing parts without more certainty. Kept driving and after about another 3,000 miles the sound was getting worse and eventually I started to be able to tell a difference when turning. It got noticably louder when turning left on moderate speed turns. This pointed to the right front wheel bearing, although I couldn't believe it was going with such low mileage.
Anyway, I ordered one and got familiar with the swap out process, including removing the CV shaft, which many seemed to have problems seperating from the male spline of the stub shaft out of the differential due to rust. Mine wasn't any different.
I found I was able to leave the CV shaft in place and just remove the tie rod end and the upper ball joint allowing the spindle to drop out far enough to pull the CV shaft out of the wheel bearing giving plenty of clearance for the three bolts in the back with an impact wrench.
I then reinserted the top ball joint and held tight with a clamp to hold the spindle in place while using the BFH and sharp chisel to seperate the wheel bearing unit from the spindle.
I found that removing the ball joint and tie rod end to be much easier than spending hours fighting the rusted splines on the CV shaft.
Put it all back together and quiet as can be.
Hope this helps someone.
I recently bought a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 Sport crew cab with 29,xxx miles on it, yep, 29,xxx. The truck sat quite a bit especially in the later years as he eventually couldn't drive at all (which is why it was 10 yrs old with such low mileage, car fax checked out etc).
When I test drove it, it had what sounded like tire howl from an aggressive tread pattern. The Michelins on it were somewhat aggressive, and I chalked it up to that. I figured what could be wrong in the drivetrain/suspension with less than 30k on the clock.
After purchasing truck and paying more attention to howl noise it just didn't seem like tire noise and the tires just didn't seem aggressive enough to be it. But the sound didn't change at all when turning hard left or right at decent speed as you would expect from wheel bearings. I happened to have another set of rims and tires from another truck I bolted on and same exact sound. So now I knew it wasnt tires.
I didn't want to start throwing parts without more certainty. Kept driving and after about another 3,000 miles the sound was getting worse and eventually I started to be able to tell a difference when turning. It got noticably louder when turning left on moderate speed turns. This pointed to the right front wheel bearing, although I couldn't believe it was going with such low mileage.
Anyway, I ordered one and got familiar with the swap out process, including removing the CV shaft, which many seemed to have problems seperating from the male spline of the stub shaft out of the differential due to rust. Mine wasn't any different.
I found I was able to leave the CV shaft in place and just remove the tie rod end and the upper ball joint allowing the spindle to drop out far enough to pull the CV shaft out of the wheel bearing giving plenty of clearance for the three bolts in the back with an impact wrench.
I then reinserted the top ball joint and held tight with a clamp to hold the spindle in place while using the BFH and sharp chisel to seperate the wheel bearing unit from the spindle.
I found that removing the ball joint and tie rod end to be much easier than spending hours fighting the rusted splines on the CV shaft.
Put it all back together and quiet as can be.
Hope this helps someone.