i was driving today (obviously), felt a snap/jerk kind of like i ran over something and it got caught...with grinding that sounded like it was coming from the drivers side front wheel. it definitely is in the drivetrain and it changed a little with speed and not RPMs. hitting bumps made it louder.
i did a search...could this be something to do with a snap ring in the transfer case? wheel bearings? it was very sudden, so it didnt seem like a wheel bearing thing to me.
any help would be great. i parked it at a friends house for now.

 

anybody...my truck is parked until i figure this out and fix it

 

nothing? i hate to keep bumping this, but i need help/an answer

 

Sounds like a wheel hub to me.
Jack up the side thats bad and grab the wheel at 12 and 6 and see if it moves. If it does its a wheel hub.
When mine went out the wheel would move about 2" when I checked it.

 

I was gonna say the same thing.

 

thank you for replying.

is this something i can fix myself? or am i going to need to take it to a shop? are the wheel hubs known to suddenly fail?

thanks again.

 

Its something you can do yourself. Not easy, but can be done.

Hubs can fail all of a sudden, but usually they fail over time. You only notice a problem when its completely gone.

 

would a bad hub cause a knocking sound in the front going over bumps?
and wheres the best place to get one?

 

Yes it would bang while going over bumps.'

Have you checked it yet?

Any autoparts will have them.

 

i replaced 4-5 wheel hub bearing assemblies on my old 95 half ton, the first time took about 5 hours, i can now do it in about 30-45. i am unsure how different the 3/4 and 1ton 4 wheel drives are.

my old 95 4x4 the cost of them from the local auto parts warehouse was $160ish
my 03 2x4 3/4 ton cost from the dealer was $475ish

my biggest hint if i were telling someone how to do a 95 is nubolt the giant castle nut on the axle before you start jacking it up or anything.

 

i haven't checked it out yet because it is parked at my friends apt, which was right down the road when all this happened. i will be checking it today or tomorrow.

thanks.

 

Expect to pay around $200-$300 at the auto stores.
Summit has them here.
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

www.rockauto.com has timken ones for $135.00. You can also get another %5 off by typing turbodiesel in the coupon box.
They also have fast shipping.

I order 99% of my parts from there.

 

big thanks.

 

any tips on replacing the wheel hub? anything tricky i should know before i started?

 

you need a 12 point socket set (metric) and a big socket with a good impact or a large breaker bar to get that big nut loose. I think it is like a 1 1/2 or 1 5/8 or so, someone correct me on that please, and a brass drift or something comperable to knock the studs out. Other than that I thought they were fairly easy to change. The problems sounded like a wheel bearing failure to me. Mine wandered and rattled and banged over bumps and squeeked. It didn't up and fail all of a sudden but that doesn't mean they wont. If that isn't the problem then I would check your control arms or your shocks. when those control arms get hammered up mine drives terrible and makes a bad racket. As far as the shocks, when the bushings go bad then they make a lot of noise but drive fine.