Well the snap ring and spacers are showing today, and I just picked up a middle of the road set of snap ring pliers, Craftsman, $20, think they'll do the job.

The new noise I heard, which was more metal/scraping noise, had disappeared until I got in the van today to drive to Sears to pick up the pliers. The whole way there I heard the noise, kind of a dragging/scraping sound, only while the van was moving but I can't really tell where its coming from other than front end.

This got me pretty bummed out, we're leaving for a 500 mile trip in a few days.

Of course, when I got back in the van to drive back to the house, the sound was COMPLETELY gone again!

What the heck? I lifted both wheels when I got home, one at a time, and spun/checked for play (just to see, make sure my repack/adjustment was good) and it was all smooth, no play.

I'm hoping that I can replace this snap ring/spacer on the driver side and the sound goes away.....but I haven't heard folks mentioning noise associated with the missing clip, or have they?

I'll update after I do the clip/spacer....

mark