Front axles.....

Hi all,

As you can see, I am new to this.

Followed the Yahoo sit for a while before car went into temporary retirement (too much - too wrong with it all at once!).

Must say this seems to be a much more constructive environment!

Am in the middle of replacing front axle and front/rear bearings.

Have done one front axle already...about 2 years back. Was piece of cake...went to napa, ordred part and slipped it in, everything went smooth and the replacement matched the old part EXACTLY in all respects. Not so this time...first part had same cvj at tranny side but different one on wheel side and both sides were missing the seal guards. Next part looks the same but is missing inboard seal guard and the outer bearing seal (original and new one) has about a 2mm larger inner diameter than the face it is supposed to seal around on the shaft! Lokked on napa web sit and saw a third part # for later cars, am tempted to try that but am getting kinda frustrated with the whole thing!

Part #s as listed at Napa website
CTR 7346 '92AWD (wrong outboard joint/seal face/spline length
CTR 7330 all FWD (wrong outboard seal face)
CTR 7347 '97AWD ?????

Also, am entrusting shop tech to flush packing grease out of bearing and repack with wheel grease, bearing is CR/SKF....do all wheel bearings come with just packing grease..am worried about not having flushed and packed bearing mysef before sending to shop....not sure tech took me seriously.

Also, at 150k am experiencing huge roar at rear end, starts at about 10mph and keeps getting louder up to about 70. Ordered new rear bearing but detected no slop when I went to replace, so am holding off 'till tires rotated...have one new on back, other 3 have about 30k, hope that is problem but need to know if bearings get noisy without seeming loose?

Have made it through a do-it -yourself tranny change at about 100k and at 140k used unit "lost" second gear....was sporadically slipping the 2-3 shift prior to that. Tightened band brake and...Viola!...second gear came back AND no more slipping between shifts, ever. In doing some (lots) of searches did not see too much emphasis on that adjustment (it is not fun) seems you can adjust it a good bit tighter (not backing nut off as much after tourqing down) than recommended without experiencing the symptoms of having it too tight....anyone else adjust it by actual performance as opposed to the standard procedure?

Thanks all.
(And yes, that was pretty windy, sorry)

[ensteele]

H6'er

Welcome to the site. This is a great place and it is very constructive here.

A friend of mine test drove a SVX and we thought that a wheel bearing was going out. It sounded horrible. We jacked it up, and the rear wheels were tight and had no play at all. The place that had the car, rotated the tires for him and we drove it again. It still was a little noisy, but it made a world of difference. We then put on another set of spare wheels and tires that I had and drove it again. It was silent. Tires can make a big difference. It may not be your problelm, but I would at least check it out first. Good luck.

[mbtoloczko]

My money is on rear wheel bearings. The easiest way to tell if its the tires is to drive on a section of road that transitions from old to new pavement or vise versa. You'll hear a distinct change in sound level between the old and new pavement. New smooth pavement will be much more quiet.

Thanks for the input.

Did notice the noise was constant over pavement change (bridges) but got to second guessing myself when I jacked the car up and did not detect any play whith the wheel on or off.

Am still worried that I am going to have to order front axle for third time though!

Thanks again.

[svxistentialist]

Hello H6'er, and welcome to the forum.

My guess also is rear bearing. Have someone drive the car for you, pull down the rear seat back, and listen in the trunk. You will be able to tell which wheel.

I would not expect much "slop" till the bearing is ready to collapse. These are roller bearings. The noise is caused by pitted surfaces and the bearing can still be very tight, but noisy. I drove mine for a year and a half with noise, till it got too bad to bear.

Not recommending you do this, change it for safety sake, just making the point the wheel may exhibit no slop, but still have a bad bearing.

Joe

[mbtoloczko]

Originally posted by H6'er
Thanks for the input.

Did notice the noise was constant over pavement change (bridges) but got to second guessing myself when I jacked the car up and did not detect any play whith the wheel on or off.

Am still worried that I am going to have to order front axle for third time though!

Thanks again.

From what I've read, bad wheel bearings on SVXes do not necessarily exhibit free play. There was a post by Beav some time ago where said that he inspected a set of bad SVX wheel bearings, and the only indication of damage was minor scoring on the bearing races. I wanted to check my wheel bearings when I had them removed, but the guy who did the bearing removal from the knuckle chucked the bearings in the trash bin.

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by svxistentialist
I drove mine for a year and a half with noise, till it got too bad to bear.

Joe

Sounds good, but I know the TRUTH. You just wanted to be able to hear your new Elvis CD. Otherwise, you'd have left it alone for another 6 months.