Recently Replaced Wheel Bearing - Hum Gone but now Metal Clanks over Bumps

Sorry this is a wordy post ( I personally hate them), but wanted you guys to have the full story, as I'm sure someone can point me in the right direction.

A couple weeks ago I had a serious hum when driving at highway speeds, so I replaced the driver side bearing hub with a full assembly I bought here on TW. Replaced everything but the inner seal because I couldn't get the spindle out to remove the old seal and ran out of time. After that, hum went away and all was running smoothly.

Last night I went back in to replace the seal for peace of mind. I jacked up just the driver side and put it on a jack stand then removed wheel, caliper, rotor, and bearing assembly. Then I went to take the bolts out of the bottom of the lower control arm, because I assumed this would allow me to swing the steering knuckle off the spindle and get to that seal.

So, I started loosening each bolt a little at a time and noticed that the knuckle was in tension and pulling up off the lower arm. I got one bolt out and the knuckle "jumped" up half an inch or so, with the remaining bolt holding still holding it to the control arm. Figured that was wrong, so I got that bolt back in, tightened both back up, and put the pass. side on a jack stand to take all the weight off the suspension. Came back to the lower arm and loosened both bolts and they dropped out without the knuckle or arm moving at all. Success

So, I replaced the seal, put new brake pads on while I was in there, put everything back together. Took it for a test drive and now I'm getting this noise...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ahD_25VTM&feature=youtu.be

I'm wondering if I overstressed something trying to remove the lower control arm bolts while only one side was on a stand and the other on the tire? I went back and double checked all of my bolts were torqued to spec. Any ideas? I'm seeing sway bar thrown around in other posts - is this easy to remove? Also, should I even be driving around? Clanking after doing the work I just did makes me a tad nervous.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. Would appreciate your all's help before I try to get a dealership or mech to look at it. Many thanks

 

Check the easy stuff first. Sway bar would be my first guess and it's very easy to take off or see it its loose. Most likely having it still connected while messing with one side loaded and the other unloaded with pressure moved it out of whack.

What seal are you talking about though If you're talking about for the cv axle I'm not entirely sure why you took the Lca bolts out to get to it.

 

You definitely missed something, that is metal on metal. The swaybar is a common culprit only because the brackets and bushings are directional and side specific so most people don't pay attention when removing them and end up reinstalling backwards. That clunk is only noticeable when hard shifts of the body roll are introduced not in straight line speed bumps like your video shows. I replaced my coilover setup and even inner half shaft seal in the same manner with one on the tire and the other up. The lower ball joint is tricky to get threaded back, but this seems like something else. It almost seems like something loosened and retorqued on the jack without rechecking under full load. I would loosen and retighten the lower ball joint bolts to include any other removed (strut mounting bolt) that were not retorqued under load. The suspension should be "independent" and not relevant to each other while lifted by a jack. However, the swaybar does add some tension between the two to prevent roll. I would recheck under load, not lifted and you will probably find something not completely retorqued. A GOPRO camera is great to mount under there if you have or can.

 

There is an inner seal on the inside face of the steering knuckle. It has a metal band so the only way to take it off is to remove the cv axle from the steering knuckle. I couldn't push the axle through the knuckle so I needed to swing the knuckle out of the way.

What is the process for seeing if the sway bar is loose without removing it?

 

If you never removed it, then it cant come loose. It aint your swaybar. You didnt reseat your knuckle, hub or spindle properly.

There are four bolts, two each side up front that hold the swaybar to the truck under tension. There is one bolt each to the midpoint of each side spindle where is mounts

 

That's essentially what I did when I re-checked the torque today. I removed driver side tire, put it on the jack stand, then left the pass. side tire on the ground. Everything was snug. Well, I guess I didn't loosen the lower arm bolts, just checked that they were snug. Tomorrow I'll get out there and leave just driver side on the jack, loosen the lower arm bolts and re-torque everything else. Great thinking about needing to get back to that original loaded position to re-torque

 

Swaybar eliminated. Thanks zipps. Looks like I need to undo and redo

 

Well, kind of a derp moment, but figured out it was a loose sway bar. When I initially went going to remove the steering knuckle, I assumed I needed to remove this so I started wrenching on it. It moved but the bolt also spun so I didn't think I had loosened it. Obviously, I had, so with that nut tightened back up, all it back to normal. yep

 

Awesome, great news. It is always the simple stuff, but damn is it frustrating

 

Boom in yo face glad it was something easy

 

Not meaning to take this thread off course, but is the parts diagram in the 1st post from -> techinfo.toyota.com ?

Thanks.

 

It's from http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old/files/05FSM/repair.html

 

I have he same noise on mine. It began a month ago when I jacked it up to put in some plastic hub things for my moto metal wheel. Something popped when I lowered it pretty fucking loud. I have replaced both CV axles, a needle bearing, both tie rods and the noise is still there. Drives fine and local offroad shop thinks it's a plastic piece clicking. Fucking annoying.

 

Found it. Fender cracked in 2 spots near where I bent it on drivers side to install TC UCA. JB Weld has fixed it!!!