Is some play normal in rear bearing?

[cstreit]

Gang,

Both my rear wheels have approximately 1mm of lateral play in the rear wheels, including the one with a bearing put in 100 miles ago. Is this normal? If not, any ideas on what it could be? (Castle nuts, suspension bushings and stub axles are tight)

Thanks

[chrisp]

I had this same thing once. It ended up being a stub axle nut not torqued enough. You may have double checked that. I thought I did too until I found that someone, somewhere has a bad torque spec published. I was at about 100 ft lbs and it's more like 300 or something like that. My mechanic uses his three foot wrench that they use to take off Cup Car center nut wheels with.

I don't recall the exact spec but it's very high.

[BGCarrera32]

I torqued mine to 215 ft. lbs. last night per a factory manual that a local shop has. No play with dealer supplied bearings installed *BUT* I did push in SKF's the first time supplied by Pelican and had a lot of slop even after squeezing the pee out of the races in the press, and checking with an axle through them. My guess was that this was a wierd bearing issue tho...

FWIW, 215 is some good grunt...

[cstreit]

I can get my hands on one of those. It's worth a check, thanks.

[cstreit]

Okaaaay then...

Got the BIG DOG out... 3 foot long 300 ft/lb torque wrench. Checked both castle nuts. One was 10 lbs under, the other fine. (Not bad for my guestimations...

However I still have equal play in the wheels. If you rock the rear wheel from top and bottom, it moves mabe 1mm, just enough to feel, not enough to see...

Normal, not normal?

[BGCarrera32]

Boy, I wouldn't think so. Where did you obtain the bearings and what brand are they? I'm assuming you can mechanically feel this through the wheel and you aren't mistaking it for some play in the CV...

???

[cstreit]

Got them from our host.

Yeah, I am grabbing the tire itself, and rocking it back and forth...

[chrisp]

make sure the e-brake brake is off.

This caused me to fail autocross tech once. Symptom was "loose bearings". It ended up being the fore-aft movement that the parking brake has and how it feels like a metal on metal wiggle at the tire. We were doing our best to pull the top and bottom of the wheel but it was rotating just a hair.

maybe it's not your problem but worth a look.

[JTO]

I have the exact same problem as cstreit. My drivers side rear wheel bearing exhibits just a tad bit of play that can only be felt if you push/pull the top/bottom of tire. New bearings from PP. Torqued to spec. and checked twice. What's up with that? I've driven a couple thousand miles like this with no changes or noise.

Hmm,

Troy

[cstreit]

No parking brake Chris... The movement is perpendicular to the direction of the car...

[BGCarrera32]

Man that's annoying. I have a hard time believing that the wobble is correct. I noticed the if you have the bearing in hand and push the inner and outer races together (imagine them on the shaft now) that there isn't a lot of clearance between the two...hence if you pressed the races together or torqued all day long they might bottom against each other causing movement in the bearing.

I'm not an expert, but I don't think the movement is right or necessary.

I hate just blaming the manufacturer, but my money is on a problem with the SKF bearings from Pelican, and I sent mine back...

[Tim L]

I’m no bearing expert but I did have one fail and the bad bearing didn’t have any play at all it was just the slightest bit rough when you spun the wheel slowly, so my vote is there should be know play.

Tim

[cstreit]

Weird though, because I've got it in both sides... I'm going to let them ride for the next racing event and see if it gets any worse, if it does, no more of those mfg bearings... One has 200 miles on it, the other less than 2000...

Now I do have somewhat of a custom setup back there, with aluminum trailing arms and the beefier late 70's stub axles... However the bearing was a tight fit in the trailing arm and the hub had to be pressed in so I know it's a good fit, I just don't see where else the play could be coming from...

THe wheels are off getting new Kumhos on them (Michelins will be turned) so I'm going to look at thething tomorrow.

[slakjaw]

personaly i would leave it if its only 1MM of play.
see if it gets worse or afftcts the ride or handeling of the car.

when your putting those SKF bearings in you have to be kinda careful
the first time I installed rear wheel bearings, i just used the cv shafts the big 300ft lb nuts and an impact to force them in then i used the same method to force the hub into the bearing.

that runed both of them pretty fast.

the second time i went out and got this tool that napa sells called a hub tamer, i used it and the wobble went away.

also i have heard of people here useing a peice of all thread and diffrent sizes 1/2 inch drive sockets.

and still others say to put the bearing and hub in the freezer overnight then there will be no need to press anything in.

hope i could help

LATE
Kyle
71` 911

[cstreit]

I did not have to press the bearing in, but even with freezing the hub, it still needed the allthread/large washer trick to get it in..

If it gets worse, or makes noise, I'll replace them...

Thanks for the insight, much appreciated!!

[jstobo]

If you didn't have something on the back of the inner race of the bearing when you "screw" the hub in you will damage the bearing. (ask me how I know). I used a 5/8" ogee washer, ground the outer edges until it fit inside the control arm lip and against the inner race of the bearing. The bolt goes through the ogee washer and when you screw the hub on with a washer the inner races have a backup and will not move. In my experience the play will get worse. Good luck.

[jeff parker]

What is an ogee washer?

[cary]

Chris, I think I'm in the same boat. I noticed a lttle movement at the tech inspection last weekend. But my e-brake was set. So I need to look at that.

But mine too, is a new bearing ( right rear ). Put in last year. Maybe 3000 miles on it.

I have the "tool" to install it with. So I don't think it was damaged in the installation. I actually put in two. I didn't like the feel of the first one. A little rough. So I returned it and put in a second one.

But it was pouring down rain when I got home so I haven't got back to it. Hopefully I'll look at it on Sunday.

But do a search here and on Rennlist. I remember someone doing a little research on some "seconds" being on the market. I don't remember if it went any where.

[gumba]

In the SRP catalog they offer a "rear axle bearing retainer for aluminum banana arms"" The retainer is very stiff and won't allow the bearing to rock in the control arm bearing bore. This is a common misconception that the bearings are bad but in reality the bore may be becoming egg shaped and the retainer plate can no longer support the bearing correctly."
I had the same problem when I switched to the aluminum traililng arms. I replaced a new bearing because I thought I installed it wrong, it still slightly rocks. I haven't used this product but it's worth checking out.

[cary]

Well, I checked out the bearing. It rocks about 1mm. The nut is torqued tight. So what next ?

JW, where did we/I go wrong ?

I wonder if I damaged it when I put it it ? There is no noticeable roughness.