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What are the signs of a bad rear axle bearing?

Street fighter

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I believe I might have a bad axle bearing, what are the signs if it's bad? I hear a whirring sound and their is vibration .how do I go about checking before pulling them If I can? they are on my 73 charger.
 
Drive to the speed where you hear the noise, then turn the steering wheel right and left like you are changing lanes. If the noise does not go away, it is not axle bearings. If the noise goes away on the left turn, the right axle bearing is suspect, and if it goes away on a right turn, the left bearing is suspect. You can check pinion bearings by accelerating, floating, and decelerating.

Before you do anything, check the u-joints first, as they will cause a vibration and can make noise.
 
Like stated turning will usually tell you if it's an axle bearing plus just jacking the car up and lifting the tire up and down and in and out will also tell you if you have allot of slop. The vibration makes me think it might be something else though.
 
you could do like i did and drive 4 hours to carlisle and when you have gear oil on the inside of your rear tires, you will then know, indeed that you have a bad axle bearing (and seal at this point) I was lucky and got new bearings, seals before I did any damage to axle tubes or gears, but took a while to clean everything up.
 
Drive to the speed where you hear the noise, then turn the steering wheel right and left like you are changing lanes. If the noise does not go away, it is not axle bearings. If the noise goes away on the left turn, the right axle bearing is suspect, and if it goes away on a right turn, the left bearing is suspect. You can check pinion bearings by accelerating, floating, and decelerating.

Before you do anything, check the u-joints first, as they will cause a vibration and can make noise.

X2
 
I believe I might have a bad axle bearing, what are the signs if it's bad? I hear a whirring sound and their is vibration .how do I go about checking before pulling them If I can? they are on my 73 charger.

If it is an 8-3/4" or Dana 60 the wheel bearing holds the axle in, so check them right away. I had a '73 Power Wagon and felt a weird vibration, went to turn around to go home and the entire axle/wheel/brake drum left the axle housing and went rolling past me and into a ditch. Lucky I was going slow while turning.
 
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