Truck prob & what the dealer says (a little long)

[Jschwilk]

Well that noise I heard a while ago got real bad this weekend, so bad everytime the truck would roll it sounded like I was scraping against the car next to me. Well after a while of fooling around with it in the parking lot I found that the noise was coming from my front drivers side tire/wheel area. Finally got back to my girlfriends house with the noise gone but some "rubbing" noise left. Checked the wheel, tire, hub, linkage and everything the best I could without removing the wheel (She didn't have a jack big enough). Decided that it was safe enough to drive home instead of paying throught the nose to have it towed (I was in Riverside and needed to go to Brea ) Crused home about 40MPH with the hazzards on the 91frwy not fun. Anyway it sounded and felt like the wheel was going to fall off, steering was pulling, I was thinking that the wheel barring was locking up. I thought it was the wheel barring or the hub that had gone bad. Got it home took off the wheel and noticed that the hub not the knuckel but the hub could move up and down by barly touching it and also the brake caliper was trashed as well was the rotor. After taking the caliper off and the rotor off I was convinsed that the caliper fialed and has been the problem all along, because I had my wheel barrings checked when I had the gears put in. I put everything back together and let it sit in the driveway until yesterday. I took it to the dealer about 3 miles away and was that scary. I actually had to pull over once and think about it, because the tire was wabiling so much I thought for sure it was going to come off. After stopping I think the brakes 1/2 way locked up on me because it sounded and felt like it but the tire was turning straight so I crawled to the dealer and told them what happened and then went home.

Got a call from them late yesterday from the service manager. I was afraid all day whether or not they would blame the lift and I would have to pay for it all. The manager said that the caipler, brakes, rotor and wheel barrings are all toast and need replaced. They can't determine which one (wheel barring or caliper) caused the problem but one effected the other. He said the parts were on order and they have approved it for warrenty. A huge brick was lifted from me. He said that if Ford inspected my truck that they would void my warrenty but he felt that these trucks should be able to handle 300lbs tires with no problem when the truck can tow 20000lbs. Very nice guy, laid it out there for me about if it happens again they most likly will not be able to warrenty it because of the tire size. He said that he has seen a lot of truck with anything bigger than 33 and 35 inch tires do this. I sure he has but I have never heard of this happening and I know a lot of people with 40, 42, 44 inch tires. I think that I have had this problem for a while and no one has been able to find it, and it just has gotten worse and worse until it gave out. My warrenty will be up on 7000 miles which is about 3 1/2 months of my driving anyway so if it happens again it most likely wouldn't be under warrenty anyway. That's sad that in 18 months I am almost to 36000 miles.

Anyway, has anyone heard of the calipers and wheel barrings going out because of tire size? I have heard that the wheel barrings on these things usally go out around 30000 miles, which I am right there at.

Thanks
Jim

[mike100]

I don't know what the pratical tire size limit is on a dana 60 front axle, but with a heavy truck it would have to be less than a jeep with a dana 60. There is always a price to pay with large tires. Maybe the bearings are not the greatest. Try another one and see if it holds up. The installation and handling after gears may have had something to do with it (dirt or whatever), so I'd be ok with a stock replacement for now.

[Tom]

Just an FYI,
You can get the stock (Timken) bearing assembly from auto zone for about $240.

The dealer wants $400 or so for it.

Check your toe alignment. If you are toe in or out...the bearings suffer badly.
-T

[SUPERF350]

Shoot, I've got over 100K running 38's on the truck since it was new and I'm still on the original brakes and bearings!

[Billet Badges]

Jim,
Do you think this might have had something to do with it?

Do you think you could have got some water and mud in the bearing and destroyed it? That would be my guess. Azusa Canyon damage. Looks like fun though.

[Jschwilk]

I thought about that but the noise has been there for a real long time just not as bad as it was when it finally broke, but I could have made it worse maybe

Jim

[Tom]

I don't think the mud got into that bearing...maybe the pinion bearing in the rear end.

I'm leaning towards an alignment issue (toe in or out). That's been my experience with about 75% of the bearing failures I've seen and heard about.
-T