Noise in 9" Ford rear axle

"the right brake drum is much warmer than the left one"

Pull it off and see why. Sounds like a spring or an anchor let go.

Earle

"c" wrote in news:CUZPg.9230$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.rdc-kc.rr.com:

WOW! You've GOT TO BE KIDDING, right?

OK, advice. Don't drive it, from your description it might be several things, it isn't going to heal itself and, depending on what's actaully wrong, it could get very expensive or even dangerous if you keep on driving it.

Tear it down and find out what's going on. As far as the rain is concerned, you're probably drip dry....

LOL, I know not to drive it, I was just looking for an opinion on what might be wrong with it before I tear in to it.

Chris

Could the u-joint be failing or from the sounds of it failed?

Mike

Well, it looks like Earle wins. I didn't actually tear it apart, but I jacked it up again and did spin the wheels this time with the truck in neutral, and sure enough there is something inside the drum that is loose. Whatever it is, it's rolling inside the drum as I turn the wheels. Not in the mood to sit in the rain and fix it, so I'll just drive something else tomorrow, lol. Thanks for the replies guys.

Chris

If I were to guess it would be one of the springs broke or pad seperation.

On drums I always put in a fresh kit of springs, adjuster and springypingthings.

Working in the rain is easy. Once your wet, your wet. :)

Actually when working on my truck up at college I used a tarps held in place with suction cups, rope, and poles. Made a little tent over what ever I was working on at the time. Looked like a hobo village but even in the winter it was enough shelter to stay warm(ish).

Everything was new when I built this axle, including all the brake hardware. It is a slightly narrowed 9" that one of the local shops here narrowed for me. They preassembled the brakes with all new hardware including the backing plates. Like I said, I am going to wait until the rain stops. The rain doesn't usually bother me, but when it is combined with 25 mph winds and 47 degree temps, I'm waiting, LOL. I'm getting too old for that shit! ;-)

Chris

Yeah, Doug. Here's a guy with a perfectly good reason to procrastinate and you want to spoil it .

Never tried the suction cup thing - just wiped the fender dry and duct taped it. I carry a folded up sheet of 6 mil painter's tarp for such "fix it or spend the night" situations but those suction cups sound like a good idea, especially in the rain.

Hehe, I'm not sure if I'm procrastinating, or if I just don't feel like catching a cold already this season. Seriously, if this was my only vehicle, I would have been fixing it, but it's just my summer toy, so it's no big deal if I don't drive it right away. I was more concerned about the seriousness of what the failed part is, but it appears that I will just have to redo the brakes. I may find out otherwise once I get it apart, but I will do it in the confines of my garage unless it warms up. We are having a cold snap here in Michigan right now, and with that and the rain, I just don't feel the need to fix it immediately. I will have a stall open tomorrow or the next day once my friend's VW is out of there. Just waiting for a part that is on order and should be here tomorrow.

Chris

:)

They work well, but the tape would probably keep rain from sneaking down the side. I got the ones from an auto shop that have little plastic clips. You just put the cup on one side and clip the tarp to it. Works good for keeping the edges from flapping.

Well, I took the drum off this thing tonight, and found something interesting. It was not the brakes, nor the axle bearing, but the noise I heard was in fact one of the shouldered sections of one stud that was broke off. The only thing I can figure is that when I got my tires mounted on the rims, the bastards at the tire place over tightened the lugs. Since I had my truck there, they offered to install the wheels for me for free, so I figured what the heck. Apparently that was a mistake. The lug nut and broken stud were inside the center of the wheel and stayed there because the wheels have a center cover that hides the lugs. The good thing is that the brakes and everything else inside the drum are OK. There was just a little corner missing off of one of the shoes, maybe the size of a kernel of corn. What I have to hope for now is that the knurled holes for the studs did not get damaged. If they didn't, this will only cost me the price of 5 studs and lug nuts, and the gas to go yell at the tire shop.

Chris

Hi Bill,

As you can see in my reply before this, I planned on changing all the studs. I got the thing fixed now, and I was lucky enough to find studs with a knurl that was a few thousandths bigger. They drew in to place nice and tight. There was no way I was going to chance the studs that weren't broken after seeing the condition of the ones that were. It was obvious that they had been over tightened. I know the studs weren't loose, because I check them quite often. Had I tried to loosen them up before this happened, I would have found the problem sooner, but nothing was hurt other than it pissed me off that an incompetent mechanic did this when they installed the wheels on the truck.

Chris