Broken wheel bearings?

LSM360

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It's called "Responsibility". I've helped him in the past. But at some point everyone has to take responsibility. You don't have to keep it beautiful, just safe. And because everyone else doesn't do it has never been a good defense.

Nazi is a very inflammatory word.
 

MoparDan

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The spindles look Dan. I'm not going to lie though, you're looking at $50 for calipers, $40 for bearings, $30 for pads and $150 for rotors. Ball joints probably another $150. This is just for parts.

If I was closer I would totally help you out with this. Do you not have any friends that can do this kind of work? This is only a Saturday afternoon's worth of work.
I don't, but one of my roommates does, as soon as I get the relief money (or whatever they call it) I'll be buying the brake parts and bearings, the pads and rotors were getting weak, so I was planning on replacing them anyway, I also suspected the calipers were getting weak, I've never touched them and from the old service records from the last owner I know they were replaced sometime in '04, and the brakes were great until recently.
 
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MoparDan

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Like I said you're risking your life and everyone's around you driving with bad ball joints. If it's not in your budget to fix something DON'T DRIVE UNTIL IT IS!!

Here's some examples.







This makes me wonder if they are broken, or if the garage was just trying to make money, but then why would they have encouraged me not to replace them? I've put a lot of miles on this car especially in the first four years mostly highway driving and nothing ever happened, then driving all they way from CT to Daytona, then last year driving to Alabama and back...well as soon as the brakes are fixed I'll have the garage look at them (they'll be replacing the leaking steering box anyway)
 

8T2TOP

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Dude,What's your plate #,because I do NOT want to be on the same roads as you..
Every one has hard times or lack of funds but if you are driving this death trap on public roads hope you have a GREAT insurance company.
 

Addy87

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Have been reading this thread about different vehicles having wheel bearing failures. I used to work at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership as parts/service manager. Have seen what happens when wheel bearings aren't maintained by being repacked with new grease and new wheel hub dust seals approximately every 20,000 miles or so back in the day. We had a customer come in one day with about a 1980 Chrysler LeBaron 4-dr and the right front wheel was about to FALL OFF!!! They lived about 20 or so miles away on a farm and I don't know how many miles they drove it in that condition. Anyway, to this day I remember how damaged the spindle was from the wheel bearing failure! The metal had gotten so hot it had turned a dark blue! I had to special order a new spindle etc. for the car and it was in the shop for about a week waiting for parts! All of this nightmare would have been avoided IF the owner had only had preventative maintenance done! ALL vehicles that don't have sealed bearing/hub assemblies need periodic wheel bearing repacking so these parts failures don't happen!!! I can't believe the poster had driven the car for EIGHT years with broken ball joints! I hope and pray that the poster can find someone to help him in his time of need.
 

MoparDan

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I never knew about repacking the wheel bearings until reading this just now, is this something I could do myself or does a garage need to? Also what are hub dust seals and are they still available? I'm really wondering if the ball joints are bad from all the posts here, is there a way to check them?
 

MoparDan

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The spindles look Dan. I'm not going to lie though, you're looking at $50 for calipers, $40 for bearings, $30 for pads and $150 for rotors. Ball joints probably another $150. This is just for parts.
Ok pads, rotors, wheel bearings, and calipers (makes sense to replace them both right?) is there anything else needed for the brakes? what about grease for the bearings or will that come with them?
 

Ele115

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This makes me wonder if they are broken, or if the garage was just trying to make money, but then why would they have encouraged me not to replace them?

I can tell you exactly why they said what they did back then, but I don't think I should
 

Oldiron440

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You can see the rotor in the background in some of the pictures and it is junk. Time to get serious.
 

Duke5A

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Ok pads, rotors, wheel bearings, and calipers (makes sense to replace them both right?) is there anything else needed for the brakes? what about grease for the bearings or will that come with them?

Yeah, you need tub of grease as well. Probably going to need a pack of cotter pins also - DO NOT REUSE THE OLD ONES!



The biggest issue you're going to face is replacing the calipers. I hope you can get the lines free without destroying them. The rest is going to assemble very easily.
 

volare 77

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They rubber bump stops are for the lower control arms. Yours looked cracked apart. They mount to the k frame.
 

Ele115

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You can see the rotor in the background in some of the pictures and it is junk. Time to get serious.
. Did you see that caliper piston?

Florida needs to bring back safety inspections. There are some real death traps on the roads
 

MoparDan

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Yeah, you need tub of grease as well. Probably going to need a pack of cotter pins also - DO NOT REUSE THE OLD ONES!
Is there a special type of wheel bearing grease these car use or will any wheel bearing grease work? I was planning on replacing the cotter pin anyway, it looks like it was used and poorly bent back together (see picture two posts down) the brakes were last done by that New Haven mechanic...
They rubber bump stops are for the lower control arms. Yours looked cracked apart. They mount to the k frame.
Do they still make them? if they do are they hard to replace?
 
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MoparDan

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I'm going to repeat a question: is there a way I can check the ball joints to see if they really are broken or not?
 

MoparDan

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IMG_20200413_173639_1.jpg
 
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Duke5A

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Since you already have it apart testing it with the tire on and rocking it laterally is out of the question. You can use a big ass screw driver to do the same thing.

How to Check Ball Joints
 
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