Couple things- wheel bearing question, noise I can’t pin down

Recently went through my front end- everything that was showing wear was replaced-

upper control arms
Lower control arms
New 5100’s all around (front at 0)
Toytec threaded perches (reused my old ones)
New strut isolators (the top part)
Ball joints
Camber bolts
Brake lines (just the rubber, replaced with stainless)
Rotors (stoptech)
Pads (oe Toyota)
New 16x8 wheels/265 Duratracs
Aligned to my specs (borrowed from a fellow TW inmate)

Immediately after- couple things noted:
-Jesus it’s smooth-
-Jesus- I’ve got a driveline angle
issue I never noticed because everything else was so fucked up

Read up on the driveline angles, no prob. Got it taken care of with carrier bearing drop and pinion angle. Not 100% perfect, but passenger seat shake was all but gone.

Put on about 500 miles and it’s back. But now I’ve also got a suspect wheel bearing (passenger front) growling a little, gets louder swerving left- but here’s a new one (for me) groans pretty bad when I’m braking. Especially from 75+ mph. Anyone experience this? I searched the forums but didn’t find anyone mention that specifically. Picked up a hub assembly today so I’ll find out what’s up tomorrow.

Doubt it’d got anything to do with my perceived driveline vibe issue- but my reasoning says you don’t get rid of the vibes one week and they come back a week or 2 later... but my passenger seat is shaking it’s ass off again (certain speeds of course) My hope is that the bad wheel bearing is adding to my harmonic diarrhea
and that’s what I’m perceiving as driveline again... I hope.

Second thing-

When I start my truck- even before it’s in gear- very distinct sound like exhaust hitting a body panel- floor board/trans tunnel- something. But nope. Can not find anything rubbing. Comes from the passenger side floor area... just curious if anyone else has had this. Comes and goes when I’m driving but mainly at idle/low speed (like a parking lot) that I hear it.

Feel free to hit me with theories etc.

 

At the heat shields. I had a couple where they cut right through and around the nuts holding them in place. A couple 1" fender washers to sandwich the heat shield took care of that.

I've had front wheel bearings make different noises when they went bad. They did however get a little quieter in turns. Or louder.

I also had a rear wheel bearing go bad. It caused a sound that resonated through the whole cab, making it difficult to isolate.

Also check the drive shaft to make sure it's straight from the transfer case to the diff. Use a string; the CB might have shifted a bit. I don't know, just a theory...

Good luck in figuring it out.

 

Went out to the garage this morning- convinced that I was changing the passenger side front wheel bearing... well, not so fast. Passed the 12:00/6:00 wiggle test, but I pulled it apart anyhow. Caliper off, just the hub/axle connected. Tight as a drum, no hint of any catching or roughness at all. Like zero.

Put it back together. Must be drivers side... repeat the process. Same result. It’s definitely not my wheel bearings/hub assemblies (not the front at least)

I did notice some uneven pad wear on the passenger side (inner pad) and it almost looked like the pad was binding on the slider pin. Massaged that before putting it back together.

So seeing as I saved myself some work there, I decided to pull my entire rear driveshaft as some guys have found a bad universal only after pulling the shaft. Nope, all good. Pumped them with synthetic grease till all the old stuff was pushed out while I had it on the ground.

Carrier bearing checks out as well. But check this out- there’s an arrow on the carrier bearing that’s supposed to point forward. Mine was in correctly, no issue. But I noticed- if you flip it 180° (arrow still points forward) the center line of the carrier is slightly higher than when it’s mounted the other way... I’ve got to look at all my angles again because they were all acceptable before (following one school of thought on the driveline angle issue) I figured why not try it, only takes 5 minutes to flip it back around.

Slight shudder when I’m starting off (typical for my truck) but I got it on the highway and didn’t see my passenger seat hit it’s normal couple of harmonic freak out zones... it stayed still. Same for my “water bottle” meter. Basically water bottle in the center console and watch the contents dance at certain speeds... it’s pretty much flat today.

Wondering if maybe the carrier came un-bonded from its mount on one side or something. Totally non scientific test but at this point hey- whatever.

The rumble when stopping is gone... wonder if it was the one pad not returning that was causing that? Can’t figure anything else out.

While I was on my back and under the truck I checked my rear U-bolts and got a few turns out of each side. That was after my test ride though, so
We’ll see. Gonna check rear bearings as well. Might just be my cobbled together rear leafs giving me grief after all of this. Who knows. Gonna drive it a few days and I’ll make up my mind.