noise and drag on left front wheel

crashing_sux

Blow Me?
So I was coming home from the track Saturday night and I heard a loud rubbing/grinding (I'm not real good at differentiating those two) noise along with a brief screeching/squealing type noise while I was cruising along at 60mph. I immediately pulled over and found the noise to be speed related, it got much worse over 10mph. I drove it a mile home and today threw it up on jackstands and put it in drive. At 20mph all of the wheels are spinning except the left front. If I give it some gas the left front will start spinning but as soon as I let off the gas the left front stops, while the other wheels keep spinning.

Seems like this must be the problem area, but how do I identify it further? Not knowing much about the drivetrain I'm guessing possible culprits are brakes, wheel bearing, CV joint, or something in the front end? Anything else?

How should I check this out? I'm wondering about CV, as I get a little bit of clunking while backing up and turning and the shop that aligned my truck for me warned me that I may have alignment problems driving around with my front end so low. How do I test that? Brakes would be my first guess with how quickly it stops when I let off the gas but I can't see how that would be, they stop fine when I press the gas and when I let off of them how would there be any pressure in the caliper to cause extra drag? I can turn the wheel by hand, although it's a little hard to do. It's also difficult to tell where the problem is because the left and right wheels are tied together, so if I spin the left front forward I'm spinning the right front backwards (which I'm guessing is a normal part of the differential operation?).

Any tips? Seems like I may be lucky this time and not end up having to pay too much for this one, but I need to get it resolved today if I'm going to be going to the Canadian Nats so if you have any ideas for me let's hear 'em.
 

crashing_sux

Blow Me?
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

I just swapped my wheel bearing out, then drove it ten feet and I heard a grinding clunking noise and the left front wheel locked up. If I back up a foot I can drive forward about ten more feet. Any ideas? I wonder if I can just pull the cv joint to get it home?
 

jjorgensen52

NHSTE - I'm the only one!
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

brakes can drag if the slide pins aren't properly lubed, they'll go in and then won't return. Does the wheel get hot after driving?
 

crashing_sux

Blow Me?
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

Well, I'm officially depressed now. After buying a wheel bearing, installing it and finding the noise still there I bought an axle but decided this time to throw the truck on jackstands, pull the axle out, and watch/listen to it with the wheel off. It makes all kinds of noise, it's definitely in the front end. I went to pull the front propshaft and found that the yoke it bolts onto is loose as hell, I can grab it and move it all around, very sloppy in there. Forgot to take an 18mm with me so I had to run home, now I'm off to the parking lot again so I can finish removing the propshaft and passengers side axle as well. I figure that way the only thing I could damage driving it home is the transfer case.

This feels like it's going to be expensive. Maybe I can at least find one of those locker front ends while I'm in there. No matter how it turns out, it looks like the Canadian Nats are out, I could drive it up there with no front propshaft but I don't really know what the point would be if I couldn't race it.
 

crashing_sux

Blow Me?
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

Well I'm pretty much talking to myself here but just in case anyone ever finds this in a search in the future, you cannot just pull the axles up front and the propshaft to get around a failed front end, the axles are needed to hold to position the wheel properly, otherwise it just sorta flops around. Didn't realize this in my earlier post.

That really sucks, because now it means I have to get my Sy towed, I can't even drive it rear wheel drive :(
 

Captain Morgan

Moderated User
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

crashing_sux said:
Well I'm pretty much talking to myself here but just in case anyone ever finds this in a search in the future, you cannot just pull the axles up front and the propshaft to get around a failed front end, the axles are needed to hold to position the wheel properly, otherwise it just sorta flops around. Didn't realize this in my earlier post.

That really sucks, because now it means I have to get my Sy towed, I can't even drive it rear wheel drive :(
yep, ur are correct.

you have to remove the outer boot on the CV axles and seperate them at the wheel. Brian Dorty and I did this on my Ty on my way home from Nats last summer, took us just under 2 hours I guess?
 

crashing_sux

Blow Me?
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

Good idea, so you're basically just leaving a stub of the axle in the wheel so you have something to hold everything together right? I was hesitant to open the boots and separate my cv's like that, did they go back together easily enough?
 

Captain Morgan

Moderated User
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

crashing_sux said:
Good idea, so you're basically just leaving a stub of the axle in the wheel so you have something to hold everything together right? I was hesitant to open the boots and separate my cv's like that, did they go back together easily enough?
I dunno, i havent bothered to fix my front diff yet, so its still 2WD :rotf: Ive driven the truck twice since coming home from Nats, so needless to say its not high on my "give a shit" list :tup:

either way, yes they should go back together fine, there is most likely a boot repair kit out there for them and if not, new CVs arent all that expensive.
 

big gear head

axle builder
Re: noise and drag on left front wheel

The S series trucks had some problems with the front brakes. The rubber hoses will come apart inside and plug the line, holding pressure on the caliper. Another problem is with the caliper brackets. Some of them were too tight on the caliper and would not let it float the way it should. GM had a recall on some of these. By the way, DTS had a complete used Syclone front differential for sale a few weeks ago. If you don't want to get into yours you might call them and see if they still have it. Talk to Rob Gordon.
 
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