2wd 84 f150

I had a 'whirring' sound like a wheel bearing was going bad. In or out of gear at about 45mph and intermittent as speed increases. Not a huge noise. more of a vibration that I can tell and if I ask the passenger to listen for it they can also hear it. Just trying to bite it in the nose before it becomse a huge problem.

so I took the rotors off, got the old grease out, repacked the wheel bearings (didnt feel like changing them, hoping a repacking would help). drivers side wasnt too bad, passenger side had some gunked up grease. Anyway put it back together still get the sound.




I noticed that with the tire on the passenger side and with the truck jacked up I can move the tire, more like wobble it back and forth ever so slightly. This does not occur on the driver side. I did tighten the wheel bearing down just right so it's not that. the whole wheel/assemble wobbles back and forth ever so slightly. What has gone bad on this side? A bitch to replace? It could be very well bad wheel bearings driver side, but this movement leads me to believe it's something else.

thanks for the help

[Edited on February 21, 2011 at 8:54 AM. Reason : .]

2/21/2011 8:52:58 AM

wait, so why do you think it's not a worn out passenger-side wheel bearing?

2/21/2011 9:02:49 AM

sure it could be. but I can literally wobble the whole wheel assembly back and forth. ever so slightly.

that's why i think it might be something else.

If you all agree it's probably just the wheel bearing. I will get some new rotors, get the bearings pressed in at the local machine shop off peace street, throw some new pads on and call it a day

2/21/2011 9:23:27 AM

To me it sounds like a worn out wheel bearing to me.

2/21/2011 9:36:21 AM

Does the noise change in intensity if you turn to one side or the other at speed?

2/21/2011 9:37:43 AM

Speed dependent. Gets worse the faster I go. I first hear it at 45 mph, I've only been up to 80 in it, sound isn't huge, by there, thank guys I will go about new bearings etc tonight. Be funny if autozone stocked this stuff, parts are so common

2/21/2011 9:47:55 AM

so you took it all apart and didnt put a new bearing in? interesting strategy

check the bearing races pressed into the rotors for score marks...

[Edited on February 21, 2011 at 9:48 AM. Reason : cd]

2/21/2011 9:47:57 AM

With the bearings on my Blazer, you could tell which one was going by turning the wheel. It varied with speed, but if you turned to the left, it got louder, and if you turned right it got softer. Since the left turn loads the passenger side, that's how I could tell it was the culprit.

2/21/2011 9:52:01 AM

yeah it's only a total of about 8 bolts to take it apart, it takes maybe 20 minutes max. I heard repacking sometimes works. Well like my dad says the easy way is the hard way

still, it was worth a shot lol

I figure I will replace both sides since im in there anyway and it would be nice to match new rotors up front.

thanks again guys.

[Edited on February 21, 2011 at 9:52 AM. Reason : .]

2/21/2011 9:52:04 AM

do you have good material left on the rotors? i'd just take a wire wheel to the hats

2/21/2011 10:29:00 AM

I get pulsing while braking at times, so I think the rotors are beginning to warp so I figure it would be good to go ahead and replace everything at once. parts are cheap, this is no bmw

2/21/2011 10:41:37 AM