front half shaft noise!

[Chevyguy78]

My right front half shaft keeps coming loose since i installed it. Once the nut loosens up a tad it squeeks. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[Chevyguy78]

I figgured it out! Wheel bearing is shot! Time for a new one!

 

[Chevyguy78]

Well tonight I pulled my right front wheel off then removed my caliper and the whole hub with out the bearing fell out. The bearing stayed in the spindle . So I went ahead an pulled 2 of the bolts out no prob. The 3rd bolt on the top totally differnt story. 1st off the 6 sided 15mm 1/2 in drive socket broke and started to strip the bolt so I grabbed my 12point 15mm 1/2 in drive socket and again it snapped and stripped the bolt even more. 3rd try I used my last 15mm 6 sided 3/8 drive with the 1/2 in drive adapter and It broke too. I used my torch to heat up the spindle on all 3 sockets and no go. At this point im Pissed. I run to Sears and swap out all 3 Craftsman sockets and buy a damaged bolt and nut remover kit from Craftsman for $9.99 and of all things that worked..... Then im on a mission to find a replacement bolt, yeah right especially at 8 in the evening. Come to find out a buddy of mine has a 91 chevy that he is parting out so that is where I find my bolt. Why does a 30 min job turn in to a 3 hour job????? Ohwell its all done now.

 

[am92]

Sorry to hear about all the trouble it caused you, but good thing you got it done. I just had to do mine about 6 months ago

 

[Chevyguy78]

Yeah it sucked but atleast its done now.

 

[96-1500]

Same thing happened to me with the bolt. Didn't have any air tools or heat, just ratchets, sockets and my angle grinder. Ended up grinding the head off flush with the bearing, pulling the bearing off, leaving around 3/4" of bolt still threaded into the spindle. I was able to get a small pipe wrench on it to turn it out (after hitting it with a s***load of penetrating oil, and attaching a 4 foot pipe to the end of the pipe wrench).

 

[Chevyguy78]

ok update.... Not even 2 months later....,last friday it goes out again. this time it took out my half shaft, RF breaks including caliper, and ground a nice notch in the back side of my wheel. I still not sure why it went out again. it got so hot it welded the half shaft nut to the half shaft its self. time for 1 ton calipers...

 

[dirtridinz71]

Probably hard to tell but did the axle nut back off again? The nut holds the bearing together, when it loosens that would explain the bearing failures.

 

[Chevyguy78]

not to my knowledge, but is a possibility. I didnt even think of that. usually I would hear I when it was loose, it would make a small pop or creek sound.