New grind in driver's front

[chesehd]

2003 AWD

Earlier this week I pulled the van out of the driveway and made it roughly a mile when I started got a sudden grind on the front, diver's side. We just had a thaw for several days immediately prior to that and thought that maybe there was some ice that collected and was now grinding away but I couldn't see any (wheel stayed on the van). Backed out of the driveway, made it another 1/10th mile silently and the grind started anew. Parked it for the past five days.

Today, it's finally been above freezing (somewhat) so I back the van out of the driveway and the grind is there immediately.

The sound changes with the vehicle speed, engine speed changes nothing.

I'm looking for a recommendation on where to begin looking. Bearings? Front diff?

I'd think that if it were a bearing dying I'd have heard something starting small and getting louder, this was loud from the start.

Argh.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

I would say the rear end is fried!



Just kidding… There is no way for a diagnosis without taking the wheel off but I would suspect you have a brake pad gone. Probably had rust between the backer and the friction material and it finally gave way.

[chesehd]

So now that the mercury decided to stop hiding in the bottom of the thermometer yesterday, I was able to finally complete the caliper replacement on the front, driver's side wheel. Did the pads & rotor on both sides while I was at it and already under the van. The pads were wearing uneven so I'm fuzzy-to-fairly sure the caliper was sticking. That's what I'm telling myself, at least.

Once complete, I took the van back out on the road and....the grind is still there.

I got a new wheel bearing tonight from the local Auto Zone with the intention of taking Wednesday to change it out.

Any tips or suggestions for making this as painless as possible would be welcome.

[chesehd]

So last weekend I had to get a friend of mine (Master Po) to come over and help me get the bearing out of the casting.

I had tried:
8 lb sledgehammer;
torch;
pneumatic hammer/chisel;
reversing an old rotor, taking a piece of a 2x4, placing the wood between the brake bracket & rotor, then tightening on two lugnuts (broke the rotor and shredded the nuts);
taking a pair of bolts and a coupling nut, squeezing them between the casting and bearing and threading out the bolts to make an internal, slow, press (bent the bolts);
a porto-power tool with the duckbill/spreader attachment (pressure relief in the ram released, duckbill stopped spreading);
all sorts of vulgarities (not to be repeated here for fear of teaching young eyes something new);

All of these efforts failed to break the bearing loose. The final solution to getting the bearing out had a small element of risk but was ultimately successful. We took a 20 ton bottle jack, looped a piece of chain around the casting, raised pressure until the chain was just barely indicating it was stretching, nailed the bearing from behind with the air hammer/chisel until it ultimately popped loose.







I have just spent roughly an hour with the Dremel and several sandpaper bits to get all the rust out of the casting.

Is there any reason I shouldn't coat the inside of the casting with anti-seize prior to putting the new bearing assembly in? Not that I plan on having to do this again any time soon HOWEVER, should the need arise I'd rather have the next time go easier than this one.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Always put anti-sieze in those places. The next time it'll fall right out.

[chesehd]

My Haynes manual doesn't have the torque specs for the AWD front wheel bearing bolts our axle nut. It only has the RWD numbers for some odd reason. can you shoot me that info, if you have it?

[LiftedAWDAstro]

147 ft# for the axle nut, 66 for the hub unit mount bolts.

[chesehd]

Thanks, Dean!

The splash guard behind the bearing got bent during the removal and is rubbing on the rotor so I still have a Monday night project but this evolution is quite nearly at a close.

I don't know why my Hanes has the RWD info but not the AWD for this process. Weird...