cant ID axle noise

orange150

orange150

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Fairfax City, VA
so my 98 Grand Cherokee started making this awful noise coming out of the front end that sounded kinda like "wah wah wah", it of course got faster as i sped up. well i thought it was the drivers side hub bearing because i could "feel" the noise at my feet. so after replacing that it still does the noise and is getting worse. it must be a bearing going bad but i am not sure which one.any pointers or help? keep in mind that i can feel it making noise.
oh yea, its a 4.0 with AWD
 
I would put money on either carrier bearings or the inner pinion bearing. I have rebuilt 4 D30s in AWD ZJs in the past 2 weeks for that exact reason. The pinion gets driven constantly and if you don't change the gear oil regularly they will wear out quite often.

Let me know if I can help you out at all.
Andy
 
damn.. i guess that means taking out the carrier and all that? i dont like dealing with gears and gear work is usually expensive. would it be cheaper to find a D44 that can be ran on my car?
 
orange150 said:
damn.. i guess that means taking out the carrier and all that? i dont like dealing with gears and gear work is usually expensive. would it be cheaper to find a D44 that can be ran on my car?
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Yup, not a big deal. Pull the carrier, replace the bearings, pull the pininon and replace the bearings, reset the pinion preload and reassemble. Double Check Pattern and backlash and you are good to go.

Let me know if I can help, I will work you an NC4x4 deal if you want to bring it down for us to do. Turn around would be 2-3 hours depending on the condition of what is in there.

D44 would def not be cheaper.

Andy
 
Have you tried running the truck on jackstands? Since it's AWD you will have to have all tires off of the ground, but you will be able to get under it and see if the noise is coming from the carrier. Just a tip.
 
orange150 said:
that sound is no u-joint
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I've bought several at the auction for less than a $1000 and all of them had bad CV heads(that someone told them it was a bad R&P) on the drive shaft...I'd check it close.
 
We had a Cherokee (sorry don't know the xj/yj/hooptyj thing),at the shop a few weeks back that had the same noise you are talking about. right at your feet. turned out to be the pass side wheel bearing. Wierd but that is what fixed it. Might be a cheaper guess. Plus you'll have TWO new wheel bearings! :D
 
i thought about getting the other side just in case, but $105 is a lot of money to not fix the problem.

im going to crawl under it tomorrow to check the CV joint and the rest of the u-joints just in case.
 
Why don't you put the obviously "good" unit bearing you took off the drivers side on the passenger side?... would only cost you the time to swap it in...
 
orange150 said:
so my 98 Grand Cherokee started making this awful noise coming out of the front end that sounded kinda like "wah wah wah", it of course got faster as i sped up. well i thought it was the drivers side hub bearing because i could "feel" the noise at my feet. so after replacing that it still does the noise and is getting worse. it must be a bearing going bad but i am not sure which one.any pointers or help? keep in mind that i can feel it making noise.
oh yea, its a 4.0 with AWD
Click to expand...

Check the font DS at the CV, center ball wears out which can cause all kinds of noise.
 
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