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I have an odd one for you this morning, I will attempt to make sense. I drive an 89 Chevy K1500. This truck generally drives so straight, you can take your hand off the wheel, and it will not drift almost at all. But the other week, I was driving down a road, everything was fine; I got a phone call, pulled over, when I went to drive away, the truck was pulling VERY hard to the left. It felt like a low tire, so I got home, and made sure all the tires were fine. Drove it again, same thing. I got it on a lift, all the tie rods are fine, ball joints are fine, pitman arm seemed fine, idler arm seemed fine, brakes had no drag, calipers moved free, wheel bearings seemed to have no play. For S&G, I rotated the tires, same thing. I double checked the rear brakes, no drag on either of them. This seems weird, but it gets weirder. The reason I suspected the brakes is because it would occasionally go away, and come back after I hit the brakes. But, the even stranger thing is, if I make a real hard turn to the right, there is a grinding noise that you can feel in the wheel, and it feels like a bad bearing. Which is what lead me to look at the wheel bearings. But to top it off, there is NO NOISE going down the road at all. Which I realized that this truck has less road and wind noise than a 2006 Nissan Altima, just a random thought. But thus concludes my perplexing situation.
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One way I have used in the past to find if a brake is dragging and causing that symptom, is the temp method. Get a infrared heat thermometer something like this
or if you have a harbor freight around
http://www.harborfreight.com/non-contact-infrared-thermometer-with-laser-targeting-69465-8905.htmlGo out on a drive, when it starts pulling give it about a half mile and pull over by letting the vehicle slowly stop on its own. Hop out and take a temp reading of the 2 rotors, the one that was dragging should be hot and the other much cooler (that’s why you let the vehicle stop on it’s own, if you hit the brakes you will equalize the heat of the rotors). If the rotors are both cool, check the drums on the back, if they are equal and cool than it is not a brake dragging issue.
I’ve seen that before with differentials and transfer cases. You’re lucky you didn’t end up making a high speed 90 degree turn.
Yeah man, I thought for sure it was a front wheel bearing. I just just ordered it the day after Christmas on my way into work, and I snuck out to get some lunch, and got gas, as I was pulling away from the petrol pump I heard a very unfortunate sound from the rear of the truck. I managed to limp it to a parking spot, when it was towed to the shop, I was informed that the drive-shaft was spinning, but the wheels weren’t turning. (I feel like that would be a great insult to someone) But, swapped the rear out and it has been fine since. But yes, I am glad it happened in a parking lot and not doing 60 down a back road.
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