Bit of bearing play

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Joined
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I suffer from Car OCD 

any tiny little issue - I wanna nail it  :chin:

I have a tiny bit of bearing play on passenger side front ...will I fall off the road and end up in the weeds ?     :jawdrop:

any advice plz? .. do I nip it up ... get all new... restore the entire car ...what? 

It's this one 



Many thanks .. and please feel free to take the piss  ::thumb::

 
Are you sure it's the bearings? Could it be the ball joints? It's normal for the bearings to wear some. When the car isn't driven much they can also get condensation in the hub, resulting in rust, and faster wear. Inspect the bearings and races for pitting and scoring, and like Bentworker said, the spindles for worn areas under the bearings that would indicate the inner race turning on the spindle.

The bearings and races can be re-used if they are in good condition. Just clean everything thoroughly, repack the bearings with a high-quality bearing grease, and adjust them properly. You'll need to remove the inner seal to get the inside bearing out and replace with a new seal.

 
With tapered roller bearings there should be no play. If you tighten to spec torque and back off like manual there is no play there is pre load on the bearing. 

Check your manual for proper settings if you do not have let me know I can scan and send.

I dont have any Torque specs 

Would appreciate any info 

this weekend I will check out the ball joints also - as expressed by Don C

thx guys

 
With tapered roller bearings there should be no play. If you tighten to spec torque and back off like manual there is no play there is pre load on the bearing. 

Check your manual for proper settings if you do not have let me know I can scan and send.

I dont have any Torque specs 

Would appreciate any info 

this weekend I will check out the ball joints also - as expressed by Don C

thx guys
I pulled the Ford shop manual 1972 Volume I Chassis. P14-04 Front Suspension-Spring On Upper Arm section for Cougar, Mustang, Comet, Maverick. 

On page 14-04-07 Fig. 9 is the Specifications of Torque in Foot Pounds. 

Wheel Bearing Adjusting Nut 17-25 Ft, Lb. There is also the following foot note.

"Torque the adjusting nut to 17-25 ft. lb. Locate nut lock on adjusting nut so castellations are aligned with cotter pin hole in spindle. Then back off adjusting nut and nut lock so that the next castellation aligns with the cotter pin hole.

When you take it all apart wash all the old grease out of the bearings and inside the hub. I would inspect and if there are not signs of heat or wear just go back with old bearings. If worn you will need to remove the tapered cones from the hub. There are two notches 180 deg. apart that allow you to use a punch to knock them out if you do not have a press. You should have the new tapered cones pressed in so you do not damage in any way with hammer or punch. The tapered roller bearings do not press on the spindle just a slip fit. 

Always replace the grease seal if you have it apart. Use a good Disc Brake Moly type wheel bearing grease. Pack the tapered needle bearings and coat the tapered cones. You do not need to fill up the hub with grease does not need it.

Be sure to wash your rotor with brake cleaner to get any greasy finger prints off. 

The Ford minimum rotor thickness is .875" Inch thick. If the guide bolts are rusty replace them or clean. Always torque your wheels in three sequences jumping back and forth pattern to 50 - 80 and then 100 Ft. Lb. Torque.

There should be no in out movement of the caliper on the spindle something is wrong if there is. They do have measurements over a large diameter ball for the cones in the hub but you will not have tools to check that.

You can probably get online and pull up electronic version of the manual for the illustrations.

 
I don't know what rating system for greases is used in the UK. In the US, grease rated for use in disc brake wheel bearings is rated GC, chassis grease is rated LB. Grease rated GC-LB can be used in both applications. Just as information I use a full synthetic GC-LB rated grease so I don't need two grease guns. Chuck

 
One thing I never tried on full sized car to gain speed or reduce ET is to remove the grease, lol. We use to WKA kart race and you pulled the seals out of the front and rear bearings and washed the grease out and use light oil. You would gain .1 to .2 on a lap. The thick grease takes HP to move the bearings. 

My uncle was mechanic for many years and was head mechanic at Cadillac dealer here. One of his stupid mechanics was washing grease out of front wheel bearings and was blowing them off with air. He spun one up so fast it exploded from the centrifugal force and cut a finger off. We use to run regular ball bearings up on a broom handle and let them slide off on the floor and would go dancing down the factory floor throwing sparks.

 
While you are at it make sure to replace the brakes, add a coil over suspension, then you need to replace the rear brakes and suspension to match. Then you can fit taller wheels and tires all around. While you are at it replace the steering and since you will be in that side of the engine bay remove the engine and overhaul it. Since you may damage the paint in the process plan an all body sand blast and paint work.

My .02 cents

[emoji3][emoji3]

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 
Last edited by a moderator:
One thing I never tried on full sized car to gain speed or reduce ET is to remove the grease, lol. We use to WKA kart race and you pulled the seals out of the front and rear bearings and washed the grease out and use light oil. You would gain .1 to .2 on a lap. The thick grease takes HP to move the bearings. 

My uncle was mechanic for many years and was head mechanic at Cadillac dealer here. One of his stupid mechanics was washing grease out of front wheel bearings and was blowing them off with air. He spun one up so fast it exploded from the centrifugal force and cut a finger off. We use to run regular ball bearings up on a broom handle and let them slide off on the floor and would go dancing down the factory floor throwing sparks.
Both of my sons race dirt oval go karts. We also remove all the grease from the front wheels bearings and from the rear axle bearings and just run a light oil. They spin really nice. But you have to clean and re-lube after every race or that bearing wont last long. Some of the more financially well off teams are running ceramic bearings with oil lube.  but a set of those for a kart run $200-300. Too rich for my tastes.

 
Most people think I have lost my mind when I tell them we did that 20 + years ago, lol. 

On the ceramics. We do have a local ceramic mfg. plant been in operation since back in the 60's I think. I interviewed for a drafting designer job with them at one time. My aunt worked there for years. When I interviewed the plant manager showed me his ceramic watch a Rado you cannot scratch the think unless it was a diamond. 

They started out making mainly electrical stuff and thread guides for the textile industry, then cutting tools and eventually have made some prototypes for ceramic engines. No coolant, no oil needed. That was proven to be way too costly and was dropped. I think Nissan does use ceramic sleeves in their super cars. 

When I was doing lots of zinc die casting I went to them to start to develop a ceramic sleeve and piston to use in the injection on the zinc presses. The zinc being 800 deg. and very corrosive would eat the metal pistons and rings up pretty fast. You had to gradually heat the ceramic parts up before putting into the zinc but when in there you could leave for months with no size change or loss of structure. We got bought out and closed so I never got to develop them. 

I eventually got me a Rado watch that I wore for years and never a scratch. Watch case and band is made from black ceramic. Wore it in the bush of Africa for months and nothing.

Wanted to try a ceramic sleeve in the kart engine but they had nothing even close to right dia. and like you said very expensive to make it special. 

All of the racers here use ceramic coating on their pistons. Seems like I recall the melting point like 30,000 deg???

Link to the company here. https://global.kyocera.com/prdct/fc/index.html

I also tried coating lawn mower blades with ceramic and they lasted much longer but the company I worked for saw that as a fault. They wanted to sell replacement blades we made I think 4,000,000 blades a year and they cost as little as $.85 to make and you know how much they cost in the store. 

There are lots of things that could be done to make things better but mfg. does not want to so they can sell more new things.

 
I agree with David on not filling the hub with grease. Too much and it can hold in heat.

 
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