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axle spins but tire doesnt :(


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so i had to have my 86 gl wagon fwd towed today because it finally gave up the go. it had been makin noise outta the front drivers side wheel for a week and i thought i could gimp it along till this weekend when i get paid to do the braks since it sounded like the pad was really low, but when i went to go up a hill the car was going then all of a sudden the speedo and rev just jumped up like it wasnt having to power anything anymore and my car coasted to an awesome stop. i put it into gear and it made a horrible grinding noise out of the front drivers side tire so i set the brake and popped the hood to see that the axle was spinning but the tire was not, even the axle nut on the outside of the rim was spinning:eek: so my question is this a classic wheel bearing failure or is it something more?

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  • 2 weeks later...

that happend to me on the right front, stripped the splines out of the hub, due to a loose axle nut, just got one at the junkyard for 5 bucks and cleaned the splines on the axle, replaced the hub and put loctite on the axle nut.

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Don't use loctite on the axle nut :rolleyes:.

 

It's a taper lock - you need to make sure the cone washer and conical mating surface on the hub is in good condition. That is what leads to this type of failure. The axle nut doesn't move (it's pinned in place with a cotter pin afterall :rolleyes:) - the cone washer wears down and no longer lock's the axle. This eventually leads to stripped splines. If you don't fix the cone washer problem then this will keep happening loctite be damned.

 

Clean cone washer, clean hub, 150 Ft/lbs. NO LOCTITE.

 

GD

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If that happens, you can usually throw it into 4wd and continue on your trip (just until you fix it of course).

 

When I bought a car for my BIL, I got it cheap since it had a stripped hub. The guy thought I was going to have to flatbed it away. He looked surprised when I just drove off in it :lol:

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last time I stripped a front hub, I put my car in 4hi and drove it home. replace hub, cone, and washer from a low mileage donor unit.

 

last time I broke a front axle, I took off the shaft and inner that was hanging, put in 4lo then did some rainy powerslides!:grin:

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  • 5 weeks later...

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