Front wheel bearings replaced and still high speed pulsation

Hi all. 2010 with 48,000 miles. Recently replaced my front wheel bearings and seals with complete koyo bearing assemblies. Replaced them in hopes of getting rid of a pulsation at high speeds and worse when veering right. The left bearing was certainly bad. lots of noise when spinning wheel but no play. After replacing everything was good for about 50 miles. Now a few hundred miles in and I still don't have the pulsation at high speeds but when I load the left bearing even at all it comes back. If it's windy enough and I have to hold the wheel right enough it happens. changing lanes and curves too or even if the road is crowned steep enough. I torqued everything including a new axle nut to 173 ft lbs. After hearing this again I jacked the front end up again and spun the left side bearing. Bearing sounds smooth but I can hear a rotational click coming from the front diff where the CV enters the diff. Is that a sign for the needle bearing? It doesn't definitively go away in 4hi and its tough to test the conditions in 4 hi. I am planning on verifying torque on the axle nut and if good then swapping the old right side bearing that seemed fine onto the left front and seeing if I just got a shoddy bearing which I suspect.

Any advice? Thanks!

 

I think it's a good plan to try the old right-side bearing to see if you got a bad one. It's free other than labor and you have (theoretically) known good parts to compare.

If that doesn't work you might want to pull the driver side CV out and take a peek just to see if you find anything interesting. Chances are you won't be able to see anything visible but you never know. Worst case you can try doing the ECGS bushing and see what happens.

Based on your symptoms I'd lean more towards being that needle bearing than a CV but who knows, sometimes troubleshooting these type of things are finnicky. Good luck.

 

Sounds like the needle bearing might be going out on the driver's side. Maybe. But that's usually associated with a sound. Maybe the right side bushing is going out. Rare but I have seen it

 

Just for clarification, you describe it as "pulsation," so I take it that there is no "shimmy" felt in the steering wheel, and it's just a feeling pulsing feeling through the drivetrain?

 

there is a bit of noise associated with the pulsations. What are they symptoms with the needle bearing exactly? Everyone always just says I have vibes after lift. No shimmy in the wheel during the pulsations. Some mornings a very slight wheel shake for the first few miles of driving but not noticeable if you hang onto the wheel.

 

When I lifted two inches and had the immediate needle bearing vibes it was mainly a cyclic vibe that I could feel through the floorboard. One second on, one second off, something like that. I can’t tell you that I could hear anything necessarily.

Did you get a new alignment done after the bearing installs? You said there was no play but it may be worth checking the basics: tire pressure, balance, alignment.

 

Thanks for the reply. I can certainly feel it through the floorboards and pedals A little up into the steering wheel but that could be something else like tires. I am a mechanic actually so I do keep up on the alignments once a month I check it at least and I road forced my tires a few thousand miles ago. Nothing changes after a rotate so I don't suspect tires too much. I figure I'll swap the old good bearing in and if that doesn't fix it then I'll do the bushing. I plan to lift it more in the future anyway. Ive just got 1" up front from the 3rd gen OR suspension. The wheel bearing vibe started before I did the suspension but I cant be certain to say if the pulsations got worse since then. Does the needle bearing get worse when you are turning/veering? That seems more like a wheel bearing trait but who knows.

 

Is there a lot of play when grab the driver side cv and move it back and forth?

 

You were in my thread about my bad front driver’s side bearing so you know I just dealt with that as well. From what I recall neither the needle bearing issue nor the bad bearing could be felt through the steering wheel, just through the floorboard. The couple times my wife drove during those issues, I couldn’t feel the vibes from either one on the passenger side. But then again I could have had much milder problems with my bearing and needle bearing than you have (or may have).

An out of balance tire would have been a nice easy solution but you said rotation had no impact. I would just go ahead and do the ECGS install. You’re a mechanic so it’ll be easy.

 

I had posted this in my own thread a little while ago. Most said it was fine and not to expect much tighter even if I did the bushing. What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_55QLg3xP0

 

That drives me crazy too! My dad rides with me a lot and whenever I bring up the vibes I can feel in my feet he's all like "what vibes I can't feel anything" And sure enough when he drove you don't feel really anything on the right side. I might as well just do the bearing. Just scared of the bearing giving me trouble because then its a real shit show it seems. Its been in there 12 years so who knows how it will come out.

 

Your video is just like mine. I was wondering the same thing, but I've been told it is normal.
https://youtube.com/shorts/liD1MNPgwqE?feature=share

 

I have the same amount of in and out movement. Yours moves a little more laterally than mine does but seems pretty normal.

 

The bearing is constantly lubricated, you shouldn’t have any issues. You might have to grind down the removal tool a tad, that’s a common issue.

 

Im sure it would go fine I've just seen horror stories on here and its my only practical DD coming into winter. Not exactly comfortable to drive my 84 jeep cj7 without a top in WI winterI had the same mindset doing my belt tensioner and that went super smooth. Just gotta suck it up and hammer down.

 

It comes out fairly easy. Or at least mine did anyways.
The key is to start pulling it out straight. I bought the ECGS tool.
It worked well enough. But there was one issue that I had, which I believe is due to the puller design.
When “tapping” it in, I broke the lip off the back side of the race. No big deal, just use a magnet to pull the piece out.

If you’re interested, I can dig up the post where I did mine.
I think I posted pictures of the process.