bearing questions

Lately on rough bumpy trails my steering wheel is making a popping noise. I took the steering wheel off and the cover over the u-joint underneath. prior to disassembly the noise seemed to be definitely coming from the steering wheel assembly.
I inspected both bearings and although there was some wear on the steering shaft it was still pretty smooth and mostly just had the black paint wear off. The bearing themselvs turned freely and imo are good.
I then got the jack out and raised the front tires off the ground and grabbing the left front tire at the top and bottom it has a good bit of wobble to it. The passenger side, did the same and pretty much no wobble.
Has anyone else had this issue? and could advise on what I may need to replace?

I'm sure someone knows

check your a arm bushings if it is not the bearings !!!! if they are wore out they will cause one to pop and make noise from there .

My bushings, tie rod ends, lower ball joints and brake pads were wore slap out at 1400 miles.....make sure you check it good....

Either control arm bushings, ball joints, or wheel bearings. Have someone shake the wheel for you while you watch, that way you can tell where the problem is. The ball joints can be kinda hard to tell anything about. I couldn't tell for sure if mine were bad til I unbolted the knuckles from the ball joints. Then I grabbed the stem of the joint and could pull it up and down about 1/8 inch. At 1st I though my problem was bearings, but there was no movement between the wheel/hub and the knuckle.

Yamabeast wrote:

Either control arm bushings, ball joints, or wheel bearings. Have someone shake the wheel for you while you watch, that way you can tell where the problem is. The ball joints can be kinda hard to tell anything about. I couldn't tell for sure if mine were bad til I unbolted the knuckles from the ball joints. Then I grabbed the stem of the joint and could pull it up and down about 1/8 inch. At 1st I though my problem was bearings, but there was no movement between the wheel/hub and the knuckle.

could be bearings,tie-rod ends,ball joints,or bushings.

Thanks all for your advice and help. I will check it out tomorrow.