Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

[Rich C.]

I think I can hear a squeak once in awhile when driving coming from right rear wheel area. Very hard to hear over exhaust. Not constant, only occasionally, almost like a squealing brake pad. A little paranoid about rear wheel bearing.Any other symptoms to look for. Kind of wanted to make it to winter before pulling off trailing arm. Short corvette season up here. However I don't want a wheel coming off either!

[Edward J.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Rich, Wheel bearing generally are not a come and go problem, Wheel brg.s are more of a humming noise and is speed sensative, and can sometimes change pitch when turn the steering wheel to left or right. What does come to mind is a half shaft u-joint or drive shaft joint. they will tend to squeek while moving slowly.

[Joe R.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Rich,

Jack up the rear and put one hand at the top and one at the bottom of the tire. Try to move the tire in and out top to bottom. It should not be loose. Loose is a problem. Hard to define loose but it should not move freely or make a noise.
Let us know what you find.

JR

PS. Please use jackstands.

[Rich C.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Thanks, I will do that this Friday night and give an update.

[Michael G.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Rich, Wheel bearing generally are not a come and go problem, Wheel brg.s are more of a humming noise and is speed sensative, and can sometimes change pitch when turn the steering wheel to left or right. What does come to mind is a half shaft u-joint or drive shaft joint. they will tend to squeek while moving slowly.

Rich,

I'm incline to go with Edwards prognosis as I've heard it and experienced u-joint failure of the half/drive shaft. The noise you've described sounds like u-joint failure.

[Jim T.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Another sign to look for u-joints is a reddish rust debris around the u-joints. This will show from the lack of lubrication.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Thanks, I will do that this Friday night and give an update.

make sure the emergency brake is off.

[Joe L.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Thanks, I will do that this Friday night and give an update.

Rich------


I would definitely do the check as described by Joe R. At the same time, you can do the check of the u-joints described by Jim T. If the u-joints have not been replaced in awhile, you can almost count on the fact that they'll be bad, whether or not any rust residue is evident.

If EITHER the u-joints or wheel bearings are bad, you do not want to drive the car until the problem is corrected. If a wheel bearing fails catastrophically, fiberglass can be "affected".

[Michael W.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Joe's suggestion of rocking the wheel ass'y is excellent, but be aware that the differential yoke may also move laterally at the same time making it difficult to assess only wheel bearing play. Try rocking the wheel while holding it in the 3 and 9 o'clock positions too.

[Paul J.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Rich,

U-joints go "squeak, squeak, squeak...". Wheel bearings go "crunch, crunch, crunch...". Wheel bearings can also roar at speed, and sometimes you can hear them grinding slightly at very low speed.

Roll your car next to a masonry wall at 2-3 mph and listen. You can also have someone walk along beside you and listen. The engine does not have to be on.

These sounds usually occur when the bearing/joint is close to failure, and has a lot of play in it. If you hear either of these sounds, then investigate further for play as described in the other posts.

Paul

[Rich C.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Awesome tips, I will be trying ALL the advice this weekend and report back. A couple years ago I tried the rocking test on wheel, there was play, but as noted by michael, the differential yoke moved in and out slightly. It's probably time to pull the trailing arms, about the only thing I haven't tackled yet. I pulled the differential out several years ago to replace the posi clutches, earned 6 stitches forcing strut rods back up(thats how I learned to attach halfshaft to yoke AFTER strut rods) UGGH.

[Jim T.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Awesome tips, I will be trying ALL the advice this weekend and report back. A couple years ago I tried the rocking test on wheel, there was play, but as noted by michael, the differential yoke moved in and out slightly. It's probably time to pull the trailing arms, about the only thing I haven't tackled yet. I pulled the differential out several years ago to replace the posi clutches, earned 6 stitches forcing strut rods back up(thats how I learned to attach halfshaft to yoke AFTER strut rods) UGGH.

If you do not know of www.bairs.com , they will send you shipping boxes for your trailing arms and they use a lot of new parts to rebuild/refurbish trailing arms. Bairs advertises in NCRS Driveline.

[John H.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Wheel bearing restoration is a job that has certain runout etc tolerances.
Let a professional bearing/arm company swap the arms or redo your
originals. Not a project for MOST owners.....

[Gary R.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Joe's suggestion of rocking the wheel ass'y is excellent, but be aware that the differential yoke may also move laterally at the same time making it difficult to assess only wheel bearing play. Try rocking the wheel while holding it in the 3 and 9 o'clock positions too.

Mike as a very valid point, not only the fact the side yokes may be worn or the posi sloppy but could also be endplay from a rebuilt setup. I mentioned in another post that you can feel movement in a spindle at 003 endplay. That alone doesn't mean the bearings are bad, they could have been setup like that since the spec is very wide at 001-008". A bad bearing will not go away, it will get hot, make noise and you can feel rough spots turning by hand.

What I would do is to get the rear end up on stands. Mark the camber position, move the caliper up and off the rotor, crank out the arm remove the 1/2 shaft and then check the spindle for play and feel, check the u-joints for rust and play and check the endplay in the diff yokes. If you hear or feel something in the spindle the only thing moving then are the bearings. It could be a parking brake related noise from a broken spring, or in the bearings.

You can check my thread on arms showing a lot of this and what bearings look like when they actually are the cause of the noise.

Rebuilding rear spindles is not rocket science but does require the understanding of what is happening and how setup affects the operation. Personally I like to use machine tools to set them up but many just buy the common shim kits and set them anywhere in the 001-008 range.

Good luck, I hope you find the problem and it's a simple fix.

[Greg A.]

Re: Rear Wheel Bearing Warning Sign?

Hi Rich, my '78 with 101,000 miles had similar noises last year...I was thinking brakes, but ended up being a u-joint. While my mechanic was in there, I had all 6 (original) replaced and he ended up doing the trailing arms as well. I'm not sure how many miles you have on your '73 (and I know this has been a discussion thread before), but if they are all original, it's likely time to do it all at once. I feel a lot more confident about taking longer drives now that I know the drive train is solid.

Good luck!

Greg.