Grinding/Rubbing Noise from front end when I let off the gas

[60stepside]

Long story short. Left wheel bearings went out, so I relaced them with the bearings and hubs from a 68.

Now I am getting a grinding/rubbing type sound from both wheels (not at the same time) when only if I hit a bump/pothole or if I gunn it and then let off the gas and the front drops back down. If I just cruise and avoid potholes or bumps no noise. I was thinking maybe its the drums rubbing on the backing plate, so I took off the wheels and checked them for any kind of freeplay (none) I also turned the the tire really fast it made no noise. Maybe it only rubbs when the front end is under load??? A little more info, the truck was lowered before I bought it. It looks like the spring was removed and a shock was added (no expert here) could maybe the shock has died and now its causing some weird problems?

Any help would be awesome!

[markeb01]

What you're describing sounds scary. If you're still running the original 1960 suspension and spindles, there won't be a coil spring - instead you'll find torsion bars running from the inner pivot back to a crossmember under the floor of the cab.

I changed out my 1960 front end for a 1975 coil spring suspension specifically to get rid of the ball bearing wheel bearings. Subsequently, I read somewhere you can get rid of the ball bearings and upgrade to tapered roller bearings by swapping to later spindles (I believe 1962), which came stock with roller bearings.

If you have swapped to later hubs and bearings on the original 1960 spindles, you may have an incompatibility problem between the bearing races and the spindle. I'd pull the left front off again immediately to see if there is any visible damage to the spindle. It could be that while the suspension is under a load everything is fine, but when it is unloaded as in rebounding from a pothole - this may allow the race to spin on the spindle creating the noise. It may only be coming from the one side, since it can be difficult to diagnose noise issues while you're driving.

[60stepside]

Happy Easter!

Here is where I got the info about the swap from roller bearings to tapered bearings.

http://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/...=536271&page=2

Markeb01 great write up on the change over to disk brakes, using your pictures I can safely say that it is a 1960 suspension.

I am going to take off that left front and check it out. I will let you know.

[fleetsidelarry]

'60stepside', thanks for the Stovebolt forum link (which I'll save to my favorites), that was new information for me and very useful. Let us know what you find.

Just to clarify, did you replace both sides when you made the swap or just the left (which had failed)?

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by 60stepside

Happy Easter!

Here is where I got the info about the swap from roller bearings to tapered bearings.

http://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/...=536271&page=2

Thanks for sharing that link. I remembered reading about the change but couldn't remember the details. Perhaps it's not such a scary situation after all. Good luck with it, and yes please advise what you find. More input might help with a better diagnosis.

[60stepside]

Sound travels my friends... Some how the pinion nut got loose and fell off the driveline! Unbelievable I found it right down the street where I first heard the sound, sure am glad I wasn't going for a long test run (I guess someone was watching out for me).

The new bearings work awesome! Np problem sending you guys the link (searched long and hard to find that info). So much better! And I also put powersteering on. Thanks again Dean at TNchev.com. So lesson learned just because you do one thing and something else goes wrong doesnt mean that its that one thing again!

Had a great time this easter being able to burn some rubber with my 72 year old mom in the truck, she loved it!

Fleetsidelarry, the left side failed so I replaced them both.

[markeb01]

Outstanding! Glad it turned out to be something that could be fixed easily. Back when I did my suspension I don't think any of these websites existed, making it almost impossible to find cross reference information unless you just stumbled on somebody that happened to know. If I had known about the wheel bearing/hub swap there's a good chance I'd still have torsion bars.

Nice Easter memory with your mom. When my mom relocated recently we used my truck to move her and her stuff, but she doesn't really "get" the whole hot rod truck thing. Have a great week, and post some pics when you can.