Front Wheel Bearing R&R

[davintosh]

I got the left side finished up last night; the parts I ordered all came in, and it only took a couple of hours to put it all back together. The new ABS sensor didn't want to fit in the hole though. I had it cleaned out as well enough to see shiny metal all around, but the new sensor would go in just so far before binding hard. I opted for the non-oem part, which was priced about $100 less than oem. That's was probably the case with the one I had to drill out too; whoever put it in probably found the same problem but just went ahead & pushed it in. Throw in a little corrosion, and that thing wasn't going anywhere. This time though I whittled & filed the plastic housing down enough for it to slide in & out easily, then put some anti-seize on for good measure.

With the new bearing it's a little quieter on the road, but not much. The rest of the noise might be from the other bearing, but after looking things over I wonder if it's the front differential; there seems to a lot of play or lash in the driveline. With the front end in the air, I turn one wheel one direction until the driveshaft turns, then I turn it in the other direction; I didn't measure how far it turned, but it felt like a long ways. I've heard that changing fluids in the transmission and diffs can make a difference, so I'll probably start there. I may post another thread on that topic sometime soon.