its the rear drivers side. When i got it on the ground and grab at 9 and 3 i can get a few degrees of movement before it stops hard. When it's jacked up and i try to move it, its either not moving, or not stopping hard which makes it difficult to find. What should I start looking at? The rear hubs were replaced about 6k and 3 months ago with brand new timkens.


Edit/Update

I've swapped the hubs from the driver side to the passenger, as well as the tires and the issue remains at the drivers side. I'm getting roughly 5 degrees of toe in/out movement when pushing/pulling on the tire at 9 and 3.

 

I assume moving and not moving is in reference to "play" in the wheel?? Not the wheel rotating?

I have trouble believing a Timken hub failed in 6k miles. But, to be sure, I'd pull the wheel off, verify nothing has come loose. Check the bolts holding the hub. Also check the rear sway links (the ball joints on them can age and give play to the suspension, granted, it should not be play in the wheel, but worth checking).

 

Yeah I'm referring to play in the wheel, toe in/out.

Tore everything down and looked at it. Hub is on nice and tight, it broke one of my new kobalt sockets . All the bushings appear fine, trying to wiggle any parts just moves the whole vehicle. The sway bar links are a little worn, I can rotate them pretty easily but they're still very snug and solid.

I've got 4 brand new timkens on the vehicle at this point, I'm thinking I may have gotten a dud and have contacted timken about getting it replaced under warranty. Any other possible points of failure I should have a look at before I deal with shipping this stuff back and forth?

 

Off hand, no ideas from me, other then what you just did. You can try to spin the hub with no wheel or brake on it and see if it feels strange in it's travel.

Timken is a great brand, but like anyone else, you make 100's of 1000's of a product, you're bound to have a dud at some point

 

You said the shaking happens at about 50 MPH? That sounds like a couple of things.
Bubble on the tire, Tire not properly balanced, Flat spot on tire or Rim. I don't think it's the hub because you would feel that a almost all speeds. Shaking would get worse as you go faster and it would grind. Especially when you take a turn in the opposite direction.
Worth checking at the least.

 

Well the vibration at high speeds is an odd one, i can feel slight movement in that tire at most speeds. When i get up to highway speeds it will shake/vibrate like crazy for a bit, then smooth out for a minute or 2, then go back to shaking. If it was an uneven tire or rim wouldnt it be a constant issue? With the play in the tire I'm leaning more and more towards a bad hub but I'll try swapping the 2 back wheels and see if that changes anything.

 

Switching the tires around had no effect

 

Make sure the lugnuts are tight.

Jack it up and see if there's a bulge or bad spot in the tire.

Is there a groaning/grinding type of noise when you load that wheel (swerving (safely) back and forth while driving)

If there's a warranty on the hub I'd change it. Make sure the bolts are tight also.

 

just swapped the hubs from driver to passenger, no change. I'm kind of lost now, I'm already going to be replacing all the bushings in the front end along with the ball joints and end links, I may just replace all the bushings in the rear as well. The only thing i can think of now would be the track bar bushings or the top plate.

Any suggestions?

 

Depending on how old and how much mileage on them its quite possible the belts are starting to come apart inside the tire. Sounds like its time for new tires... I recently had one do the very same thing recently. I have 60,000 mile tires with 50,000 on them...