Urgent help with rubbihng noise

[adpsimpson]

Hi all, sorry for not posting for so long... We're on the road with 2 surfs from the UK to Cape Town. Were intending to go through Tunisia but the route got altered due to the revolution there, and we're now in Turkey, hoping to enter Syria tomorrow.

However, we've got an intermittent but fairly horrible noise coming from the front left wheel of one surf. We're not sure exactly what it correlates to, but appears to happen on rough ground when 4WD has been (or sometimes still is) in use. Don't know if it's the rough ground of 4WD causing it. It clears with aggressive steering or braking. It normally clears eventually and then doesn't happen again for a long time - we've done about 1000 miles since it first started, but always once it's stopped. We've had a good poke around but can't tell easily where it's coming from.

Here's a video of it happening. We'll attempt to get an internet connection again tonight to see if there's any suggestions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HMp7akXYJ8

Many thanks!

[greeley]

sounds like a diff to me,maybe a knackerd driveshaft,just guessing though dont hold me to this

[Apache]

Sounds too high a pitch to be most of the usual stuff. Two things spring to mind though. Is it defintely coming from ONE side? If so, its not the diff.

Sounds about right to be splines on end of shaft spinning in the drive plate on the hub? Has it got switchable hubs? Hard to tell with the wheel turning.

Something rubbing in the end of the brake disc, or over the backing plate somewhere?

I'm reckoning it sounds like the noise I imaging a stripped spline would make though. Have you actually got 4WD, and not 3WD? Can you pull the drive plate off the hub and have a look at the condition of the splines? Would extreme suspension movement allow the spline to pull out of the drive plate if there's a circlip or something missing? I cant remember what it looks like in there, but I'd deffo say pull off the drive plate / manual hub and have a look.

[adpsimpson]

Thanks Apache, that's the sort of answer we were thinking of.

We've spent the last hour lowering the front suspension slightly (the backs of the trucks are so heavily loaded that the front rides too high - we'd already lowered the other one) and it seems to temporarily have fixed it, but we'll see once we've done a day or two on it. It certainly still needs investigated and fixed.

It's got 4WD - tested that fine. No switchable/manual hubs, it's all stock as far as we know. We reckoned splines but didn't want to go digging yet (and don't have time at the moment). We may have a day or so spare in a couple of days, so could take it into a garage in Syria to do the work.

Any other help still appreciated.

[TonyN]

noises that change when you alter the height of the front are normally CV's, especially i it clears moving the steering as well,sometimes the bushes.

I had a truck that when I loaded it up with 4 wheels and tyres, the outer CV almost locked up, and yanked the steering wheel every rev of the wheel. but was perfect with nothing in the back, it just was jamming when in a different place to normal.

if you have manual hubs it will go away when they are unlocked, but if not it'll do it in 2 or 4WD.

[Apache]

Wouldn't CV problems be more of a clunky noise rather than a buzz? I'm picturing the CV knuckles now and cant think of how they'd make that noise at low speed.

[TonyN]

Depends how its worn, if a gaiter is split and it has sand in it, tis more likely to be the bronze hub bushes or really bad wheel bearings on listening to the vid though.

I'd take the hub cap off, remove the drive plate and try it again, if it stop s try pulling the driveshaft back through the hub a little and cram some grease in.

[adpsimpson]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Didn't get internet in Syria, in Jordan now. We've done about 1000 miles since I posted the video, maybe 2000 since the sound first appeared. Since I posted here, it's not happened again. That was just after we lowered the front suspension.

CVs: Joints were packed with grease and gaiters replaced before we left. Appeared in good condition but no guarantee - not new but not obviously worn.

Bearings: Had this looked at in Kosovo (500 miles before video) and bearing was tightened. Doesn't seem consistent enough for a bearing noise. We're fairly convinced that's not it.

Bushes: the noise has been so harsh a few times that we're worried it would have destroyed them by now. Also very inconsistent - would bushes be that intermittent?

Took dust cover (hub cap) off and splines in drive plate look fine.

There's no obvious way to know if something we do sorts the problem out (eg removing drive plate) as it's so intermittent - no noise now for 3 or 4 days.

Could the driveshaft be moving slightly in or out and rubbing on something, eg splines between driveshaft and CV or end of driveshaft in CV?

Long shot: If a top ball joint collapsed in on itself, altering the camber of the wheel to be top in, it would slightly shorten the distance between the hub and diff. Could that cause things to rub where they shouldn't?

...try pulling the driveshaft back through the hub a little and cram some grease in.

We can try this, what would it help? Worn bronze bushes?

The whole thing feels like some sort of harmonic that is only set up intermittently when something is out of place. It's linked to rotational speed of the truck - higher pitch at higher speed. Sudden braking or swerving stops it when it occurs, implying something moving back into place. At higher speeds it gets extremely harsh, more than we'd expect from a bronze bush.

We're piling on the miles just now, just hoping that it holds out till we have time to get it properly sorted - to ship parts to Turkey was going to take an official Toyota garage a month, so we might as well carry on, hoping nothing goes catastrophically wrong. Any other ideas would be great to hear.

[TonyN]

We can try this, what would it help? Worn bronze bushes?

.

yeah, its quiet common to have dry bushes after wading lots, or dust and grit gets past the dust shield.

they are exactly the sort of thing that starts or stops playing up when using 4wd or 2wd or when steering.