I took the wheel off and the axle had broken off right at the end where the threads for the axle nut start. Had to get it towed home, where I took more stuff off to survey the damage... The whole hub came off with the rotor, and the bearing is in a million pieces... the rotor is chewed up, but that looks like it can be resurfaced. the guy at the machine shop says that i need a new hub. the knuckle looks fine, but the hub has been ground down somehow and it slides easily inside and out of the knuckle and therefore cant be pressed in.
Here are some pics:
http://www.thawa.net/petridish/legacy/bearing1.jpg
http://www.thawa.net/petridish/legacy/bearing2.jpg
I am wondering what caused the axle to break there. Thats some pretty beefy metal. the axle is not more than two years old, and i dont offroad or anything... The bearings only have about 50,000 miles on them and didn't make any noise at all... I wonder if the bearings went causing the axle to break, or if the axle broke which would definitely cause bearing failure? its one of those two, but what caused the axle to break or the bearing to fail? Maybe I will never know...
It sux because money is kinda tight, and i dont have any time between work and school to be running all around town
Andrew