Thank you Earl. I never thought about the tech vault.
Upon closer examination, I have only one bearing that went bad on the side the brake rotor is on. It appears that something hit the outside seal, on the bearing itself, hard enough to cause it to pop off. The loose seal was not visible because it was hiden by the outer wheel seal. There is a visible mark on the bearing seal. I suppose I could have done it at some point, but most likely it was damaged during the mfg. process. However, that is purely speculation.
I road several hundred miles one day last summer pushing through a heavy rain storm and probably started the process of washing the grease out of the bearing. Several weeks ago I began to notice a vibration when turning into the driveway at home, and other slow corner situations, which probably was an indicator that something was going wrong. Since I had just put new tires on, I assumed the vibration was from the tire tread.
The generic bearing number is 6304LU. I'll pick one up tomorrow morning and be back on the road by afternoon.
Thanks to those who offered guidance during this issue. Problem solved. No need for any more posts to this thread.
HD
