Jakez

1993 Toyota Pickup 4WD 22RE 5spd

Pulling into a parking lot yesterday and I could suddenly hear and feel a bad grinding noise from the front end, I want to say drivers side but not 100% sure. It goes away when I stop or sometimes by itself after 2-3 seconds. Does it again if I encounter any type of bump at all or if I go above 40mph (scary). Almost feels like something stuck in the front brake(s) but there is not visual sign of scoring I can see. Wheel bearings were replaced somewhat recently and front wheels have no play. I did accidentally smack the front wheels into/over a tall speed bump I didnt notice a couple miles prior to this happening, but I cant say for sure that's what caused it.. while [slowly] driving home and stopping for like the 8th time I decided to try putting it in 4WD Hi (front hubs NOT locked) and that seemed to have stopped it from happening the rest of the way home.. at the last stop sign before my house I took it back out of 4WD to see if it was maybe something happening only in 2WD and I couldn't get it to do the grinding anymore.. anyone have any guesses or ways I could diagnose this at home?

5 Fists

Jacking your front end up and trying to recreate the noise would be a good place to start I think. Did you do the bearings yourself?

Jakez

Edited my original post with some important information was left out.

I did do them myself, spent a long time doing it slowly and making sure I did them correctly including the correct amount of force/weight it took to make the wheels spin. Everything was dialed in and has felt great since (about 3k miles since).

ermin277

Sounds like axles or diff. With hubs unlocked and in 2wd try rotating them by hand and see what you feel.

swampedout

Are we talking gear grinding noise?
its hard to diagnose sounds on the net.

What else do you experience?
Steering wobble? Brake issues?

Jakez

I haven't experienced most sounds either so it's hard to give the right description. I'd say it's like a low toned heavy/solid sounding/feeling grinding noise/feeling. Something like what I would think a bad CV would sound or feel like, but doesn't match the description or videos of bad cv's that I've seen online.

I jacked the front end up and spun both front wheels. When unlocked the drivers hub makes a solid metal clanking sound like 2-3 inches after changing directions (only makes the sound once each time), the passenger side does not make this sound and feels more free-spinning like. When I lock the drivers hub (passenger still unlocked) it is noticeably a bit harder to turn and can hear the mechanism clicking into locking mode.. reason I mention all this is because I've been suspecting that my drivers hub hasn't been unlocking, but there is a noticeable difference frictionwise locked and unlocked.

Also, when I grab the drivers wheel at 12 and 6oclock and push the top while pulling the bottom and vice versa repeatedly there's doesn't feel like any looseness, but when I grab the top of the tire with both hands and jerk it back and forth (lol..) there is a tiny bit of looseness

I'm going to take the drivers wheel off later tonight after it cools down and see what I can figure out.

swampedout

Sounds like youre going thru it the right way.

You mean like if you pull the wheel straight out towards you it moves? Could be the locking nut isnt tight enough.

CVs are usually good if the boots arent torn.
When you lock the hub, its normal for the wheel to be harder to turn. Like when i forget to unlock my hubs and turn full lock in a parking lot, i hear a little pop

swampedout

Also, jack it up put it in and out of 4hi and see if you hear anything from the front diff.

Jakez

Ok so I think I've actually fixed 2 problems..

Firstly, took the drivers wheel off and noticed the brake pads were wiggling when the hub was spun back and forth, which was the clanking sound I was hearing (holes for the 2 pins were slapping the pins each time it rotated in the other direction). Reason they were doing this is because I for some reason had not installed the brake pad shim on the drivers side so I'm hoping the grinding noise/feeling was just the pads vibrating from the looseness. Which would make sense given the symptoms and randomness.

Meanwhile, while also inspecting the passenger side and messing with things on both sides to compare the effects, I figured out that it was the passenger side hub that was not disengaging.. so I took the 'hub cap' end off to inspect and noticed that the thick sprocket piece did not come off with it and was still inside the hub. I probably wouldn't have known any better if I hadn't changed the brakes/rotors myself not long ago. Got the sprocket thing out using a flat head. I remembered it being attached to the hub end cap when changing the rotors, but couldn't figure out why it was detached now. So I carefully removed the drivers side to inspect/compare. Took me a minute because I didnt want to ˟˟˟˟ up the drivers side while tinkering with it but finally realized there's like an 'inner spring' that I guess you could say has 'negative tension' that holds the sprocket piece on. Basically the spring 'pulls together' or 'resists stretching' instead of wanting to push things apart like usual spring's, which was why it was so hard to notice it all coiled up on the inside of the hub end cap. Anyway, the sprocket thing has a groove on the inside of it where this spring kind of threads into it to hold onto it, was a bit tricky to get it up in there with a little metal pick but it finally clicked into place.

After staring at the hubs and the end cap assemblies back and forth and rotating things and tinkering trying to figure out what causes this thing to only want to seal against the hub 1 (or 2) way, I noticed when it sits correctly is when the teeth on the sprocket line up with the 2 notches in the center area of the end cap, there will be 1 tooth on each side perfectly centered with the notches, any other way and the teeth don't match on both side and the end cap isnt going to slide all the way onto the hub. The goal is symmetry!

After reinstalling the hub end caps and more hub spinning and hub lock engaging/disengaging etc etc everything appears to finally be functioning like it should!

Sorry for the terribly long and wordy post, I have this desire to thoroughly explain things hoping it will help someone else later on who might have similar issues or not be able to figure out why their hub(s) aren't locking or unlocking. Thank you all for your help! I'm happy these issues didnt involved taking ˟˟˟˟ apart too much, especially those damn come washers!

swampedout

Good work!

wallytoo

iTrader: (1)

pictures of the problem in the locking hub would have been even better, for others to compare to.

Neemox

Does the '93 have locking hubs and the brass spindle bushings still?

My problems when I got the sound you are describing was too much grease packed into one hub, and worn spindle bushings on the other. Just for the record