4-5 lug help please!

[zerooath]

i have a 95 240sx that i just did a 4-5 lug conversion on but i have only did the front wheels so far...finishing the backs tomorrow....anyways.

well when im driving there is like this ridiculous scraping sound coming from the wheels and i cant figure out what it seems to be. i think the brakes could be rubbing together or something like that and i heard that the brakes on the base model s14s and the SE models are a lil different. there is also a sorda popping sound from the left wheel to. i havent gotten an alignment yet either but a buddy of mine says he thought that could be it and he got an alignment on his car after his swap and it still scratches.

and i got all the parts off the same year 240 but, of course, a 5 lug.

if anybody can offer any remedies to this problem that would be much appreceiated as this sound is ridiculously loud and i really dont wanna risk messing anything up but i have to drive this car as it is my only way of transportation.

sry for the essay i wrote but i was trying to give all the information i could think of at the time thats relevant to this situation.

[tknbkthrsdy4anfg]

First make sure the scraping sound isn't your tires because of a missalignment. Then perhaps lift the front end up and spin the wheels, that will tell you if your wheels are scraping on something or if its the brakes. If its not that, it is probably the wheel bearings. The popping sound is most likely coming from the top strut mount, the rubber wears out causing a popping noise, look under the hood at the top of the strut, around the lock nut is a ring of rubber, if that is torn or has stretch marks, its probably that. Mine's been doing it for a while, and they're both torn pretty bad.

[koukimonster139]

^^ yes all that happened because he swapped to 5 lug...

seriously jack the car up 1 inch off the ground. proceed to spin the wheel and listen/watch carefully.

[projectRDM]

The brakes are no different between base and SE cars. The only thing different would be you could be using the larger 97-98 rotors, but I doubt.

Did you install the plate washer after putting the hubs back on? Also, are the dust shields bent or contacting the rotor? Check both of those. You honestly should not have had any problems, the front hub swap is literally a 10 minute job for even a moron, so you're overlooking something simple.

[zerooath]

yea i know its a direct swap but we also changed out the driver ball joint and the popping sound is coming from no where near the strut its coming from right around the wheel itself....i havent jacked up the car yet but i will try that and see what happens.

so if everything was done correctly there should be no scratching period right?

sry for such a noob question but what is a plate washer? im not sure about that part....

[spoolin_s14]

that would be the big washer between the nut and the wheel bearing

[johngriff]

did you swap the whole upright or just the hub?

Get new wheel bearings? Who replaced the ball joint? You need a press and the right tools and experience to get those things in correctly.

[90KAcoupe]

The brakes are no different between base and SE cars. The only thing different would be you could be using the larger 97-98 rotors, but I doubt.

Did you install the plate washer after putting the hubs back on? Also, are the dust shields bent or contacting the rotor? Check both of those. You honestly should not have had any problems, the front hub swap is literally a 10 minute job for even a moron, so you're overlooking something simple.

wat larger rotors are u talking about. i have the rotors off of a 97 and they are the same size as the 90.

[zerooath]

i just did the front wheels....i swapped in the knuckles with the hub still attached.

didnt get new wheel bearings and i had a friend that works at an auto shop get me a deal and they put the new ball joint in for me.

i know this is a pretty common swap on 240s and its weird how not many people on here seem to have this rubbing problem.....i thought it would of been a common problem with a common fix perhaps.

maybe it is ill just have to check tomorrow morning when i start on the rear 5 lug swap.

thanks for the suggestions....anymore insight would be helpful if someone has had this problem before

[zerooath]

figured out what the problem was guys

any of you who have the same problem check your dust shields....if the sound is coming close to the rotor just (with your wheels on) get a pipe or some object like that and bend back your dust shields or you can go the super easy route and just cut them bitches off.

good luck!

[Wei240]

yeah, i just took my dust shield off,
i guess it gets my wheels dirty alot faster, but no noise to worry about, ever, from it being the dust shields fault...

[projectRDM]

figured out what the problem was guys

any of you who have the same problem check your dust shields....if the sound is coming close to the rotor just (with your wheels on) get a pipe or some object like that and bend back your dust shields or you can go the super easy route and just cut them bitches off.

good luck!


From above: Also, are the dust shields bent or contacting the rotor?

Amazing.

[zerooath]

well when i spun the tire it made a horrible scratching noise so at first we thought maybe the brake pads were rubbing but it wasnt that.....so we got a pipe just for the hell of it and bent back the dust shields on both sides and made sure they werent touching anything else then we gave the tires a spin and there was no noise...there is still a small small noise that you cant really hear...maybe its the dust shields again on the inside...the part where we couldnt get to...ill try to cut them this weekend and see if that helps at all.

and r240na i know that one of the guys above suggested that...i wasnt trying to take credit just letting everyone know that that was the solution for me...credits to the guy who originally suggested that