Needle bearing nightmare

Had I seen this sooner, I would have mailed it up to you. Nobody should be ignored when they need help. We’ve all been in a bad spot before(as I’m sure we all have) and know how that feels. It’s times like that when if you can help, you absolutely should. It usually comes full circle….and even if it doesn’t, it’s the right thing to do. Anyways, glad you got it figured out.

 

So after driving the truck for a little over a week now. Even though most of the vibration is gone, I'm still getting a vibration in the steering wheel and what seems like the driver side floorboard driving at highway speeds. The vibration is consistent and similar in intensity to a cell phones vibrations. I do have 1.5" add a leaf on the rear and 2.5" in the front. I put a 3/8" diy carrier bearing drop in but that doesn't seem to have made any difference. Can a wheel bearing cause vibrations like that? Has anyone dealt with something similar? Thanks in advance.

 

How many miles on your front wheel bearings?

 

The truck has about 150k on it now and I don't think the previous owner ever replaced them and I haven't done it so 150k I'm guessing. I have jacked the front end up and checked for any wiggle in the wheel bearings, up and down, side to side but they both seemed tight. No odd grinding noise when I spin the tire while the trucks jacked up either. But I'm not sure if that's a reliable way to know if the wheel bearings are going bad or not.

 

My only experience with front wheel bearings is that I did them on my wife's 2006 DCSB at 100k. It's been 10 years now so memory on it is a bit fuzzy but I don't remember any play, just a persistent vibration that new bearing assemblies fixed.

I'll ask obvious questions, too:
-diff refilled to the proper level? Did you find and flush all the bearing debris?
-are you using OEM Toyota CV's. After vibration issues with nearly half a dozen different Napa and Autozone units on my 1st gen, I vowed to only use Toyota CV's from then on. Going back to Toyota CV's fixed the vibes on my 1st gen, especially since the driveline angles were close to max with the 2.5" lift on it.
-tires balanced?
-using a diff drop? Wisdom here says a diff drop can actually increase vibes
-does your carrier bearing and/or do your u-joints have play?

 

There are a couple possibilities that I can think the problem might be:

1) Carrier Bearing/Center Support Bearing needing replacement soon

2) Driveline Angles

3) Something in the steering rack is loose or worn.

 

Yeah, I flushed the diff after I switched out the needle bearing, I couldn't find any pieces left in there. Had a rag stuffed in there the whole time.

As far as the CVs go, I'm pretty sure the passenger side is NAPA and the driver side is OEM but I can't tell. If I had to guess. I'd say the vibration is coming from the passenger side. How do you tell if a CV is bad if the boot isn't torn or ripped?

No diff drop.

Tires are new and should be balanced but I can definitely take it in to les Schwab the next time I get a chance and have them rebalanced.

And finally, the carrier bearing has about a 1/4" inch play and I just put in a 3/8ths spacer. No play in the U-joints, greased them while I was doing the bushing.

 

My layman's suspicion is the off-brand CV's aren't built to the same tolerances and that they use lesser materials. When you add more severe driveline angles on a lifted truck, it only highlights these issues.

I rebuilt the front end on my first gen years and years ago, naively trading in the torn OEM CV's for Duralasts. With the rebuild, I also increased the preload of the coilovers, increasing ride height and added new tires. With all the new parts and work, I was disappointed when an annoying vibration took over the whole front end and just seemed to get worse and worse. Long story short, going back to OEM CV's fixed the problem. Of course, your results may vary.

Also...if you're running bigger tires and/or you wheel your truck, I would suspect that front wheel bearings might also be part of the problem at your mileage. Always hard to tell diagnosing on the internet, but seems you're on top of it and will narrow it down. Keep us posted when you find it!

 

It’s more expensive but, OEM CV Axles are the way to go.

 

Just an update on the vibration problem, it was definitely the passenger side wheel bearing. Ordered some SKF brand off of rock auto.com (atrocious customer service btw, do not recommend) but after installing the new bearing all vibes are gone, drives like a new truck.