I'd put the front end up on stands and have a helper put it in gear while I watched and listened. Maybe remove the wheel. You need to determine what is making the noise...wheel bearing (hub assembly), brake parts, drive axle, transmission.

Agreed, take all safetly precautions available.

When the helper puts the car in drive, remind them... there is no backpressure on the wheels and releasing the brake should be plenty to get them moving. Slow speed if any.

I will do this later on today when I have someone to help me. I wouldn't think it could be the hub though, could it? I mean the bearings are behind that layer of steel, not likely they would break without visible damage is it?

Hit a bearing hard enough and you might flat spot it or damage it in many different ways.

You hit hard.

o.k. then just for reference, after I get the hub off should it spin freely turining it by hand? or would it need some force applied to make it move?

I pretty much rule out the brakes because I compressed the piston on the caliper when I was putting it back on to make it easier, so when I first tried to move the brakes shouldn't have been locked, in fact there should've been so much space that the car probly would barely have stopped if it did move right.

You should not need to remove the hub to determine whether or not is is bad and causing the grinding noise. You may be able to do this by just jacking it up, supporting it, spinning the wheel by hand and listening. I would think you would be as likely to find a bad bearing in that hub as you would find a bad axle. You can split the ball joint, undo the sway bar end, and pop out the drive axle. Reconnect the ball joint and give the wheel a spin. That would remove the trans and axle from the equation. Hope it isn't the trans.

Another thought...check the backing plate on the brakes. A rubbing one can cause some noise.

Its not "some noise" its kinda hard to describe, a very loud griding noise, like you might hear if you were driving a stick and tried putting it into gear without pressing the clutch, only a bit louder.

That'* ... not good.

Get it up on the jackstands and see what you can find.

ok, I have some news, dont know if its good or bad. For one, with the tire (spare) off there is no grinding, everything appears normal. Apparently the caliper is grinding against the wheel... what should I suspect is the problem? EDIT *** ooops, been drinking beer the entire time I've been waiting for my friend to get here to help me... I might have had too much, the second problem I was having was due to the car not being in park, my fault, so sorry.



EDIT*** When the left wheel (wheel that hit the curb) is completely straight, the right wheel is noticeably (although not very badly) pointed to the right. Any ideas as to what is wrong here? also it seems the the left may be slightly like this... \... (although not that severe just a little bit tilted in that direction) when looking from the drivers seat.