Help! Thrust(?) washer

[boomdriver]

I took the Vette for a quick ride. The noise is still there. I guess it didn't heal itself over the past few weeks. The noise is louder under acceleration than at steady speed or deceleration . I jacked up the car and looked at both sides while running. Didn't appear to be any tire/wheel/alignment problems. The tires ran "true" w/o any variation on either side of the car.The noise is definitely coming from the bearing/hub area. I rotated the tires by hand and didn't "feel" any difference from one side to the other.The only difference when I installed this ass'm. was the addition of the "thrust" washer. I'm almost certain that I placed it on the spindle correctly . It seemed obvious when put on the spindle that there is only one way to do it.
My question, after this long explanation,is: Can a bearing ass'm. be "bad" from the manufacturer ? I rotated the new "brg. ass'm." by hand prior to installing it and didn't notice anything . Is there anyway to test the brg. w/o any special tools ?
Again, thanks in advance for any and all replies.
MiMitch.

The cheaper chinese made bearings are looser, sometimes so loose that they are at the outside of the spec for replacement...but, I've never heard of one that makes noise. That comes from a needle or ball thats been flatened inside the race and "clicks" as the load rolls around to that spot. This is wear and lost lube, so its highly unlikely that a new bearing would make that noise.

Sounds more like a U-joint. Go thru the motions of shifting rev/for and listen for some slop in the drive train. A worn joint in the drive shaft can sound like its in the half-shaft because of the ability of sound to travel the length of the drive line.

 

[WhalePirot]

Man, be careful getting under a running car. Not even sure it's hard on the driveline to run it with no weight on it. Seems I read years ago, it was; perhaps due to the angles at the U's.

I doubt any of us can test a new bearing as the load place on it from the car is virtually impossible to do on the bench. One assm I got from Rock Auto was so loose.... it was worse than the original one with 110k miles on it! Both that I finally installed seemed rather tight to rotate by hand.

My car goes to the alignment shop tomorrow with all new U joints in the half-shafts.

Sorry for your woes. Noises travel so well in metal, tho. If there is no excessive play in a normal bearing test, I'd look elsewhere before R/R-ing them.

 

[MiMitch]

Thanks for the replies.
The noise is definitely coming from the bearing and not from the U-joints or drive shaft. When I drove the car it didn't make any "clunking" noise when I shifted into reverse or first gear, that would indicate to me a bad U-joint. When I rotated the wheel by hand I didn't feel any "roughness" in the bearing which would make me think that a ball bearing in the ass'm. was bad and again no "clunking" in the U-joints was felt. I'm going to pull the ass'm. out and return it to O'Reilly's for replacement as soon as the weather co-operates. It's kind of difficult and cold working in the outside around here. Hopefully warm weather is on the way.
Again I thank all of you for your responses and any info supplied.
MiMitch

 

[WhalePirot]

Ouch

Sorry to hear about the cold and the noise. So far, I feel lucky oin that my car seems okay, with the 30 or so miles on it. I also returned one very obviously bad bearing to Rock Auto.

This whole bearing thing is like the Wild West or a crap shoot in that there seems no way to really know what we are buying, outside of (maybe) paying top dollar for them.

After the alignment, done by a first rate shop (Glenn's, in Costa Mesa) the car is so much more stable at freeway speeds and does not react to throttle with lateral nose movement. The rear toe in was way off.

Mitch, I'm pulling for you, bud.

 

[myspot]

Rear wheel bearings

Just recently buying a 95 coupe I have yet to buy a shop manual. Is the rear wheel bearing design the same as a C3 74 coupe. That design has been a pain in the posterior as many seem to fail due to the difficulty to lubricate them. Yes, I have heard the clicking sound from the rear end of my 74 before we changed the things out.

 

[gmjunkie]

Just recently buying a 95 coupe I have yet to buy a shop manual. Is the rear wheel bearing design the same as a C3 74 coupe. That design has been a pain in the posterior as many seem to fail due to the difficulty to lubricate them. Yes, I have heard the clicking sound from the rear end of my 74 before we changed the things out.

C4's are Totally Different Animal!~!!
They have a Non Serviceable/Hub Bearing Modular Assembly!~!!

 

[myspot]

rear wheel bearings

Thank God! I am glad they came up with a better design [I hope].Because the old design wasn't good. My dad a farmer said that if agriculural,or automotive, eguipment design engineers went to hell that they would be forced to work for ever and ever on the stuff that they designed.

 

[WhalePirot]

that goes for aviation and avionics designers, too.

the biggest current problem I see is the country of origin; the hit-or-miss quality of parts available, maybe correlating to price; maybe not.

 

[MiMitch]

up-date

Sorry to take so long in up dating this problem. I replaced the "new" brg. ass'm with a "SKF" premium(?) ass'm. and it still made noise when I drove the car. I jacked up the car and rotated the rear end using the tires. I definitely felt and heard noise near the right side of the differential housing. The noise and feel are hard to describe. I'm just going to ASSUME that it's something in the differential and definitely not a good thing. My next question is; How difficult is it to remove the differential ass'y. w/o having access to a hoist? I got a price from the Chevy dealer of $760 to remove and replace the differential ass'm. with the cost of repairs to the differential ass'm. being extra. I've looked at the shop manuals and it seems to be a rather involved process. That's why I'm asking if anyone has done this and what their thoughts are about doing it by yourself.
Again thanks for all your previous replies and all the help given to me. I'm looking (?) forward to hearing about your solutions to this or similar problems.
Thanks in advance for your replies. MiMitch

 

[boomdriver]

Sorry to take so long in up dating this problem. I replaced the "new" brg. ass'm with a "SKF" premium(?) ass'm. and it still made noise when I drove the car. I jacked up the car and rotated the rear end using the tires. I definitely felt and heard noise near the right side of the differential housing. The noise and feel are hard to describe. I'm just going to ASSUME that it's something in the differential and definitely not a good thing. My next question is; How difficult is it to remove the differential ass'y. w/o having access to a hoist? I got a price from the Chevy dealer of $760 to remove and replace the differential ass'm. with the cost of repairs to the differential ass'm. being extra. I've looked at the shop manuals and it seems to be a rather involved process. That's why I'm asking if anyone has done this and what their thoughts are about doing it by yourself.
Again thanks for all your previous replies and all the help given to me. I'm looking (?) forward to hearing about your solutions to this or similar problems.
Thanks in advance for your replies. MiMitch

At what point did you completely rule out U-Joints? There are 6...all it takes is ONE needle in a cap to ruin the joint and cause failure. Even IF they are brand new, I've seen caps that were installed wrong and crushed or bent a needle and caused the failure.

 

[MiMitch]

At what point did you completely rule out U-Joints? There are 6...all it takes is ONE needle in a cap to ruin the joint and cause failure. Even IF they are brand new, I've seen caps that were installed wrong and crushed or bent a needle and caused the failure.

When I drove the Vette, I didn't hear any "clunk" when I shifted from reverse to first or vise versa. I also didn't feel or hear any noise coming from the half shafts or drive shaft when I manually rotated the tires. If it is the U-joint(s), they will be replaced when I remove the differential ass'm. Thanks for your input. MiMitch

 

[WhalePirot]

At this point, rather than assume one thing or another, based upon "a noise" I would visit a few expert and reputable shops for a diagnosis, then decide if you want to do the extensive, but doable job yourself. I have taken the RE out a few times and had an expert redo it. Surely you have some good shops there and the time invested in finding, evaluating and learning from them will payoff. I take an open ear approach, letting them know that I am not expert, respect their expertise but no rube either. They see hundreds; I see a few, so humility is apropos and the only way I get a helpful and honest reply. Some shops welcome carry-ins, vs the R&R.

Sometimes, the cheap way is not the cheapest, like when parts get thrown at a problem that do not fix it. At least much of the rear drive is renewed, which is not a bad thing for an older car.