Front wheel bearings

[chrishewett]

Thinking that I had a small amount of play on my front o/s wheel bearing I tightened it up a tad so there is now no play at all. I am now worried that it may be to tight. The manual says 2-4 thou end float which sounds a lot to me.
Should I be able to feel movement with the wheel when the car is jacked up?
Any tips for someone without a dial gauge?
Chris

[carrierdave]

Chris,
There should be no significant movement in the wheel otherwise you could put the bearing and shaft at risk of failure (along with the MOT).

The way I tend to do it is to tighten up the nut so that it bites the bearing (not too tight), then just slacken it off so that you can get the split pin through the hole and nut. We are talking approximately 5 to 10 degrees back on the nut.

Then put the wheel on and check it. If there is still noticeable movement move the nut one/two slot forward and then refix.

You are aiming to have no noticeable movement in the wheel and it should spin freely.

Hope this helps

David

[M100]

2-4 thou does sound a lot but unless you have that amount of end float the bearing will effectively be crushed as the stup axle and hub warm up in use. The original Lotus recommendations went from 2 to 8 thou! A low torque tighten at 5lb.ft while spinning the hub followed by loosening by the minimum to acheive split pin alignment usually works. One complete flat or thereabouts is 1/6 of the thread pitch (20tpi) or 8 thou.

You can just feel 2 thou end play, if you pull really hard on the brake disc or hub. It won't fail the mot if the inspector has a clue about older vehicles (quite a few don't )

[reb53]

I'm with Martin on this one. When I tightened mine to satisfy the MOT guy I neglected to loosen them off again.
When I eventually got back to them they had a tinge of blue suggesting they had got pretty warm. Check that the inner race is a snug fit on the stub axle. If it's not you can still get wheel movement even when the bearings are over-tightened.
The washer under the the castellated nut will probably have a wear groove on its innermost face from bearing movement. Flipping the washer around often changes the place that the split pin goes in giving you some extra adjustment options.

Ralph.

[chrishewett]

Thanks very much for the advice, I shall act on it.
Chris

[denicholls2]

It's been awhile since I've been in there, have to do it before driving this Spring. But my method was if you could move the washer around with a screwdriver without prying on it after doing the tighten-loosen, you're golden. Tight is definitely worse than a bit loose.

[Hamish Coutts]

Guys,

For what it's worth the way I always do it is to tighten up the adjusting nut by hand with a socket and a small extension, until there is just no discernable play at the wheel. Then I loosen of the nut 1 flat then pop in the split pin. Just measured the end float on a dial gauge and it's a nats b/h over 2 thou. (with brake pads out).

I explained this to my MOT chappie and he has no problem passing the car. He also uses the method on the front hubs of the Ford Anglia he's restoring.

Regards,

Hamish.