Front hubs(bumping)

[carolinaboy02powerstroke]

To start, my ABS light came on a short while back. Scanned the truck and it was the left front ABS sensor. Truck has 142,xxx miles on it, so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone. I found a sweet deal on two new hubs and sensors and replaced both sides last night. Went down the road and came back. The light went away and everything seemed to be OK. Got a shower and left the house to go out(this is going to be hard to explain so bear with me on the description.) Before replacing the hubs, and not long after buying the truck in February I started to feel a bump in the floor board on the drivers side. Figured it was just the sway bar bushings, but I haven't gotten around to changing them. The bump wasn't horibble, but it was noticeable. Well on the way to go out last night the bump became some sort of an animal and was very noticeable. Still seems to be on the drivers side. Its kinda faint driving in straight line, but going through curves It was ridiculous. Didn't matter which way the curve was(left or right) it was horrible.

Now when I replaced the hubs the spline shafts had play in them...not a tremendous amount but just movement. I figured that was normal.

Is this where I was wrong and need to replace joints and seal there?

Please do feel free to post any knowledge or experience here. I hate to go and ruin new parts I just put on.

If you need anything cleared up, let me know and I will elaborate more!

Thanks to all

[dhanna6powerstroke]

Originally Posted by carolinaboy02powerstroke

To start, my ABS light came on a short while back. Scanned the truck and it was the left front ABS sensor. Truck has 142,xxx miles on it, so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone. I found a sweet deal on two new hubs and sensors and replaced both sides last night. Went down the road and came back. The light went away and everything seemed to be OK. Got a shower and left the house to go out(this is going to be hard to explain so bear with me on the description.) Before replacing the hubs, and not long after buying the truck in February I started to feel a bump in the floor board on the drivers side. Figured it was just the sway bar bushings, but I haven't gotten around to changing them. The bump wasn't horibble, but it was noticeable. Well on the way to go out last night the bump became some sort of an animal and was very noticeable. Still seems to be on the drivers side. Its kinda faint driving in straight line, but going through curves It was ridiculous. Didn't matter which way the curve was(left or right) it was horrible.

Now when I replaced the hubs the spline shafts had play in them...not a tremendous amount but just movement. I figured that was normal.

Is this where I was wrong and need to replace joints and seal there?

Please do feel free to post any knowledge or experience here. I hate to go and ruin new parts I just put on.

If you need anything cleared up, let me know and I will elaborate more!

Thanks to all

The movement you have in the axle shafts when the hub is out is normal. You did put the washers and snap ring back on after replacing the hubs, correct? Is the clunk/thump noise more apparent when hitting bumps also?

[melmount]

i had the front body mounts make a clunk soun on me before? They are right under your feet.
The sway bar links can do it too. Leaf spring bushings?
If the trac bar is not real tight it can clunk.(I mean real real tight)

[carolinaboy02powerstroke]

Originally Posted by dhanna6powerstroke

The movement you have in the axle shafts when the hub is out is normal. You did put the washers and snap ring back on after replacing the hubs, correct? Is the clunk/thump noise more apparent when hitting bumps also?

OK good, about the shafts. Yes I made sure to put them back in, in the same order they came out in. I only drove roughly 18-20 miles and I really didn't pay much attention. If I had to say, yes, it was more noticeable. But what really brought it to my attention was going through curves.

Thanks for the quick reply...this is bothering me.

[dhanna6powerstroke]

Well, going through curves puts more pressure on one side of the sway bar than the other. If going right it puts more pressure on the left, if going left it puts more pressure on the right. If the left sway bar link has seperated, it will be louder over bumps and through right hand corners especially if there are bumps in the corner. Also check what melmount suggested in his post. The trac. bar is suppose to be torqued to 400 ft. lbs. or something like that.

[carolinaboy02powerstroke]

Originally Posted by melmount

i had the front body mounts make a clunk soun on me before? They are right under your feet.
The sway bar links can do it too. Leaf spring bushings?
If the trac bar is not real tight it can clunk.(I mean real real tight)

The bushings in the sway bar looks shot... thats going to be next. Haven't checked the body mounts. The leaf spring bushings looked ok. I haven't touched the trac bar. This has to be steering related because I got way worse after doing the hubs.

[melmount]

Dont count out the body mounts under your feet. Usually all the rubber is still good. But rust and filth gets caught up in it. The bottom part has a female end but its design allows rust to form in it. Then once the rubber wears a bit it loose ans that makes a cracking clunking sound.

[carolinaboy02powerstroke]

Does anyone have any idea why this bump/thump all of a sudden got worse right after doing the hubs though?

[dhanna6powerstroke]

I can't answer that. I know that after I do a repair on my truck I always seem to notice noises or sounds a lot more.

[melmount]

jack up the wheel, make sure the hub has no play. USe a pry bar under the tire an lift up. See if you hear a clunk then. If you do look to see if its the hubs or the ball joints.
IF its loose there you found it. Bad hubs from the get go are possible.
Coincidences happen too. If the sway bar bushings or link bushings are bad they will clunk. MAybe they just finally gave up the ghost.