rear axle wobble getting worse. axle shaft or bearing?

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Black06ram

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Hey guys, I wanted to get some advice here before I go tearing into things again.

A few years ago (the winter of when I first bought the truck) I was turning left from a side street onto a main street with a 6-8" concrete curb. Mid turn I hit some black ice with the rear wheels and it kicked the rear out much faster than a usual flick out in the rain etc. before i had time to catch it, the rear right wheel/tire struck the curb at what had to have been a lmost a perfect side-by-side angle. there was a minor scuff on the tire and some cosmetic damage to the wheel lip and wheel face. again I was not going fast since I simply just turned out of the side street.

after checking things over in a nearby parking lot, I drove home and definitely had a wobble that increased with acceleration. next day i took the wheel/tire to be checked and rebalanced and it only needed a minor balancing. brought it home bolted it on and the wobble was still there. I knew it probably meant the axle shaft's face/hub was bent, so I bought a replacement axle, bearing, seal, etc and installed it. seemed fixed, and this lasted a while (about 2 years).

a few months ago, the slight wobble seemed to come back at certain speeds 30-35 and 65-75 most notably. once in a while i'll get a squeak/chirp from the wheel too which increases with wheel rotation. just for the hell of it, I figured, mayyyyyybe just maybe I bent a brake rotor, so I swapped out the left and right rear rotors last week. no change...still a wobble from the right rear .

my next step is to open up the rear and check things over, and at least change out the right seal and bearing. I am hopeful that it is just the bearing, and not the axle again.

my question to you guys is, (and Im pretty sure I know the answer already) but is there anything else that you can think of that might be bent/tewaked./ or out of wack? i really dont think it could be anything in the diff itself. I would hate it if it was somehow the axle again after 25,000 miles of being in there... i'll have a pile of these things by the time the truck hits 100,000miles and that would suck

ideas, thoughts? thanks !
 

SYKRAMMAN

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It sounds like you tweeked your rear slightly, that's maybe why it took 2 years to come back. I would go with the bearings, if it was the axel, it would be consistent but bearings gradually go bad. Jmo.

Get the rear alignment checked also.
 
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smiley

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You probably did this but swap the rim and tire side to side. My dad just had a wobble on 09 and I swore it was a bearing I move the tire to the rear and it was the tire going bad not the bearing. I was very surprised.

In your case I don’t think it is the tire but a cheap check just in case. It wouldn’t explain the squeak though.
 
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Black06ram

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You probably did this but swap the rim and tire side to side. My dad just had a wobble on 09 and I swore it was a bearing I move the tire to the rear and it was the tire going bad not the bearing. I was very surprised.

In your case I don’t think it is the tire but a cheap check just in case. It wouldn’t explain the squeak though.


thanks both of you guys.

i forgot to mention, that since then I have moved all 4 wheels around and the wheel from the initial impact is now on the drivers side front , and it has a new tire with less than 3,000 miles on it (balanced etc), I have also had two mud-terrain treadded tires on the rear wheels (which were the front wheels at the time of the incident) and have swapped them side to side since the are non-directional.

I am heading outside now to pull the seal and bearing out. I am of the same opinion that you guys are, that the axle itself does not seem to be the culprit, since the wobble is intermittent. also, since there have been no impacts on this "new" axleshaft itself, I wouldn't see how that could go bad.

also noticeable at slow speeds under 10mph.. you can feel the truck shift a tad with every rotation of the wheel.



I am really hoping it is not something inside of the differential... if anybody thinks it could be, please let me know.

I'll see how the bearing replacement does, and will post back

thanks again!
 
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Black06ram

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ok, unfortunately i finished the install, and nothing changed for the better. in fact the wobble was more distinct and noticable at a larger range of speeds. that sucks

i took some photos and videos that I plan on uploading to see if it may help me/us all figure out a determination/fix for this.
I even swapped teh left and right wheels, and no change.


I am thinking that as my next experiment, I mgith try a very very thin washer/spacer on one or two of the axle studs behind the brake rotor. in the videos I used a wax chalk to show the actual rotating gap of the components.

unless something is tweaked inside the differential(highly unlikely right?), I will lean on the opinion that something with the brake caliper, brake caliper mounting bracket, e brack setup, rotor face might be tweaked.

at some speeds i feel the rear end slightly gallup down the road. at very low speeds I can feel it "kick" as the tweaked component brings the rotor in contact with the brake pad, it kicks enough that I feel it in the steering wheel



also, maybe a Moderator can move this topic to the General Discussion page, not sure why I posted it in hte exterior page.


any new ideas thoughts guys? i'll try to upload photos/videos soon
 
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Black06ram

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can a a moderator move this whole thread over to the GENERAL DISCUSSIONS subforum in 3rd gen rams? I should never had put it in this sub forum

26361071789_834d758fa6_z.jpgTruck rear axle bearing replacement by David Martin, on Flickr


37427959524_c54807c8fb_z.jpgTruck rear axle bearing replacement by David Martin, on Flickr

37427960254_aaccd38d93_z.jpgTruck rear axle bearing replacement by David Martin, on Flickr

the wear pattern looks normal on the axle shaft. the bearing came out with only two pulls of the side hammer and seemed to spin effortlessly.

26361073279_7512350cca_z.jpgTruck rear axle bearing replacement by David Martin, on Flickr


38082797106_a7a429bde3_z.jpgTruck wheel bearing project by David Martin, on Flickr


photo of the axle tube . at first I saw the top of the tube was out of round and was like holy #&@# ! then after a second, I realized that this is just how the tube is manufactured and this is where the tube is seam-welded shut. right? hope so!. I know the axle shaft does not ride that close to it, or the bearing would be destroyed.

38105726482_bf4c92dae8_z.jpgTruck rear axle bearing replacement by David Martin, on Flickr



37427985774_c47ba1086a_z.jpgTruck wheel bearing project by David Martin, on Flickr

one thing that did get me a little worried is the amount of glittery metallic fluid that came out of the bottom of the axle housing. I had just changed this fluid out about 25k miles ago. thoughts???!



VIDEOS:

((you must lick on the image below to load/play each video, they are not youtube links.))

this is at the begining of the project... pre bearing removal:

38105764832_dae7406b8f_z.jpgTruck wheel bearing project by David Martin, on Flickr



In this video, you can clearly hear something grinding and scuffing. I thought for sure when I took everything apart, I would find a trashed bearing that was the cause of all this. to my dismay, the bearing is was just fine. leading to more confusion

37427993814_b1a5e14668_z.jpgTruck wheel bearing project by David Martin, on Flickr


37428001394_4e0fbcef9b_z.jpgTruck wheel bearing project by David Martin, on Flickr



THIS IS WITH TEH NEW BEARING AND SEAL INSTALLED. :

38105776942_8beea9efa6_z.jpgTruck wheel bearing project by David Martin, on Flickr


so, my thought here is that perhaps I can find some very thin washer/sspacers and find the "low" area of the rotor and shim it out tobe even with the leading surface of the rotor...as an experiment. mayeb the brake system is tweaked somehow and causing the rotor to spin akwardly, (remember i swapped rotors and wheels side to side also)
 

avantiguy

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Hard to see in the video but it looks like a fair bit of runout (wobble) in the flange. I think about .001 possibly .002 inches is acceptable. I think the flange is bent. Think about the wobble there and add 15-18 inches to it in tire height. A bit of an issue I would think. It shouldn't be expensive to have it checked if you don't have the tools.

HF should also have what you need for under $50 also.
 
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Black06ram

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thanks for the reply and advice.


i agree with you, but the problem that just doesn't seem to make sense is that this axle shaft is only 2 years old and I put it in to replace the old axleshaft that was bent from the initial impact. so, it wouldn't make sense for this shaft to have a bent flange right? of course there could be a manufacturing defect, but i would have noticed that when I put this in two years ago i'd think.
 
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Black06ram

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just a quick followup for anyone who might be curious. I played around with a variety of very thin washers/spacers between the axle flange and the back of the rotor to "shim it" as plumb as possible. it took about 8 tries but I got the combination as close as possible. I had to keep swapping out thinner vs thicker ones on different combinations of each of the 5 wheel studs and ten reassembling everything and doing a test drive each time. it took hours. I wont be leaving it setup this way, but will drive around for a little while in the interim and keep checking tightness of the lug nuts. I will be due to replace all 4 rotors and pads in about 10,000 miles (spring 2018) but wil check on things periodically in the interim. The wobble is gone to the point that nobody notices it until I tell them to try to notice it. very hard to detect.
 

SYKRAMMAN

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just a quick followup for anyone who might be curious. I played around with a variety of very thin washers/spacers between the axle flange and the back of the rotor to "shim it" as plumb as possible. it took about 8 tries but I got the combination as close as possible. I had to keep swapping out thinner vs thicker ones on different combinations of each of the 5 wheel studs and ten reassembling everything and doing a test drive each time. it took hours. I wont be leaving it setup this way, but will drive around for a little while in the interim and keep checking tightness of the lug nuts. I will be due to replace all 4 rotors and pads in about 10,000 miles (spring 2018) but wil check on things periodically in the interim. The wobble is gone to the point that nobody notices it until I tell them to try to notice it. very hard to detect.
Did you ever figure out what was causing the wobble? Axel housing tweaked?
 
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Black06ram

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nope, I did not. I drove around for a few months with the setup I mentioned above including the shims/washers and this seemed to fix the wobble. then in March 2018 someone pulled out from behind a tall snowbank onto the highway I was traveling on right into my pathway because tehy did not see me. it killed my truck. I was heartbroken and still am. They were at fault for the crash and I was paid for it by insurance. I ended up getting a mint 2005 ram 1500 almost just the same, but with less miles, different wheels, and stuff.

here is the thread for that whole story:
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/my-truck-was-crashed-into-replace-or-repair.117441/#post-1696833



sadly, I never did find the exact true cause of the rear end wobble. Damn, I still miss that truck way too much..
 
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