So my passenger side tire leans inward from the top and when you turn the front tires the front of the tire makes contact with the coil spring, when I jack it up the wheel has just a little play side to side, not up and down. There is also a little noise when i turn slightly and are moving forward but the ball joints seem tight and i dont see and play in them. My question is what should I look at replacing first and shouldn't there be more play if the wheel leans that bad? Unit bearing or Ball Joints? And my HP30 looks straight. Thank you for any ideas

 

Does it "unlean" when you take the weight off it?

 

Take the tire/brakes off and see if the unit bearing has play in it. Should be fairly obvious what parts are bad once you put hands on it

 

To check for a bad balljoint, jack up the front. take a long bar and place under tire. Pull up and release. See if there is movement in balljoint that way.

Bad balljoints sometimes only show under pressure.

 

Excellent!! I'll let you know in a bit what happens when i start prying aound.. Thanks for the responses

 

so I jacked it up and tried to get movement in the ball joints and there was no play... I took the rotor off and felt for play in the unit bearing and there wasnt any... The unit bearing sounded and felt smooth when turning by hand... Could my 33"tires contribute to the tire making contact with the coil spring and make it lean? .... still stumped

 

Yeah but not alot....

 

I just checked out the bearing/hub assemblies on my uncles Durango and found they were bad(142K on them). Not loose. Smooth but dry and noisy(espescially on the road). Early stages of failure. If you've never heard a dry wheel bearing being spun by hand you won't know what I mean. While there we jacked up the front of my XJ and spun my wheels. No noise at all other than the sound of the brake pads on the rotors. Any other vehicle with know good hub assemblies you could compare yours with? How many miles on those hubs? Could be that your leaning problem will only show up with the weight of the vehicle on the tire.

 

Not sure of miles but they are for sure old, I don't feel any play anywhere by hand and the unit bearing seems smooth . Would the unit bearing really make the tire lean that bad to the point of hitting the coil when turning? The ball joints feel tight as well, I just don't know what to replace first as $ is tight at the moment

 

I can't see the bearing causing that lean without the bearing being extremely loose. And if it was I'm sure you'd feel it in the steering. Had a frontend alignment lately?

 

Nope I've only had it a couple weeks.... Is there anything I can do without driving it somewhere ..... everything there feels tight but there's crazy lean.. not really sure...

 

I'd put both sides of the axle up on jackstands and have someone rock the steering wheel side to side while looking for play. If your not sure what to look for find someone who does and you work the steering. Leave the wheels on so you'll have the weight of them on the steering and suspension systems.

 

It looks like it does but its hard to tell by sight... I put it on jackstands and the wheel (with tires on) doesnt make contact with the coil spring, but when its on the ground under its own weight it makes contact with the coil. I also found out my track bar bushing was bad and causing some slop.... So ball joints i assume?

 

wait.

your ****ing tire hits the coil spring???? something is royally ****ed. if its your ball joints there is NOTHING left of them.

 

Seriously. That's really the only thing between the knuckle and the axle that holds your wheel. Or the wheel bearing itself.