Wheel Bearings

[Magnethead]

Truck shop that I have been helping at, the Owner's son's truck had the rack start leaking (input spline seal), so I put a new rack in it yesterday. While I had it up on stands, I went through the balljoints since the truck has 150K miles. Didn't see anything in particular to get my attention, other than mentioning that the brakes were around 1% life remaining.

This morning I get a call "We have problems...the right front is locking up. Can you go man the shop for our 9AM appt then come help me?"

So I go meet him at the Kroger parking lot. I'm thinking the brake line collapsed or something "simple" like that.

8:20: Boss calls "Stevo I need your help, the right front on the truck is locked up"

-throws tools in my truck and drives over-

"I hope it's simple"

-removed tire, notices rotor gouged and no pad left-

"Looks like the brake line may have collapsed"

-tries to move the Pistons to remove caliper-

"I hope the Pistons didn't fall out of the caliper"

-forcibly removes caliper-

-uses clamp to push back Piston-

"This makes me feel better"

-tries to rotate rotor-

"We're f---. Hub bearings came apart"

-gets out breaker bar and 36mm socket-

-jumps on the breaker bar to no avail-

-Puts jack handle on breaker bar and jumps to no avail-

-truck owner gets on jack handle and jumps...finally budges-

-Goes to pull hub...does not pull-

-Puts crescent wrench on brake rotor (which is rust-welded to hub) and pulls...no budge-

-Tries the C-clamp...no budge-

-Tries C-clamp and crescent at same time...no budge-

-puts tire back on and calls for a hook. $0 through his USAA. -

(Some time elapses)

-Tow truck drops off the truck...but it's loaded backwards from what we need-

-drop truck from rollback...tire is just making all kinds of grinding noise-

-Drives truck into bay...sounding like bloody murder-

-Puts truck on jackstand-

"I wonder what's left of that hub..."

-Lifts and pulls tire-

-Tire comes off truck-

Me and boss at same time: "What the ffffffudge"

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vmaWngrUTG8ihJ1FA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NsfcqmmANfbH6KYb9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gsfQMq4JviWVQdLP7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UCuh3pB8T2Q9UJzN7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AntH48hUNCKtpzCK9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jBi5TuCrfu9KTLCH9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/P1euPMpa9sYSn6bt8

 

[Clutch]

His Dad owns a truck shop?

Maintenance.

 

[BobbyFord]

There’s no way that bearing wasn’t making noise prior to locking up.

 

[sdj]

No sympathy here, this is plain abuse and lack of maintenance and yes, he has heard this for a while, geeeezzzzz.

 

[StandOnIt]

No sympathy here, this is plain abuse and lack of maintenance and yes, he has heard this for a while, geeeezzzzz.

Too busy yapping and texting and cranking up the tunes.

 

[sdj]

Too busy yapping and texting and cranking up the tunes.

Let him sit for a while, that will change his attitude, believe me it works.

 

[Magnethead]

I drove the truck yesterday after putting the rack in and heard nothing. When i did the prybar check for ball joints nothing was out of the normal.

Yes the owner's son does play his music loud...10" subwoofer, so i doubt he would have heard it anyways.

But i'm fully convinced that the fact that the brakes were down to 1mm also played a contributing factor.

They bought the truck at 135K miles from a marine that had recently relocated from the Carolinas (kid is a senior in HS). As far as I can tell, somebody, somewhere, did not do a pre-sale/post-sale inspection.

Driving it back from the alignment shop, I noticed the U-joints clopping under acceleration as well....