Do I Need A New Front Hub?
 

With about 600 miles on my new front wheel bearings, I decided to re-check them for any excess play which might indicate further adjustment.

Passengers side is fine, but on the drivers side - even with the outer threaded collar good and tight (maybe even too tight), I can, with some effort while grasping the outer edges of the tire, create what seems to be excessive movement of the hub - with a very small but definite “chunk” back and forth.

(Keep in mind that the car itself behaves perfectly - tracks straight and true, with no hint of wobble at any speed, etc.)

I did all I could to eliminate any other source of motion (ball joint, tie-rod end, a-arm, strut, etc.) - narrowing down to the hub itself moving relative to the steering knuckle/spindle.

Then I remembered…when I installed the new bearing races - while the outer one went in fine, it was the larger inner race which I’d kept pounding away at - thinking that it had not yet reached the bottom shelf of its bore when in fact it had. An optical illusion relating to a curvature beyond the actual bottom of this bore had me thinking that the bearing needed more pounding.

When I eventually dropped an inspection mirror into the bore, I’d realized that the bearing had already bottomed out - and I’d been pounding needlessly for some time. But all looked well - with the only “damage” I could see was a bit of marring of the seal/race driving tool, while the shelf/bearing stop in the bore itself looked fine - as did the interface between this shelf and the bearing race itself.

Fast forward…and I’m thinking that I may have pounded that bearing race in just a wee bit too far, possibly deforming the shelf/stop in the bore - just enough to throw it enough out of spec so that the bearings which the race holds captive are held in place with just a bit less pressure than would be needed to operate without excess play.

I’m assuming here that the bearing to race clearances do not “self correct” as the outer threaded hub locking collar is tightened, and that in fact the distances between the two (inner and outer) races is very critical. Is this correct? And, if so…is there a specified measurement for this distance - and a way that I might measure this without taking everything completely apart?

At any rate…I will be removing the hub in question tomorrow to get a better look, and it would really help to know if I could assess its condition without popping off the rear seal…and to see if its just a question of defective bearings/races, or more like I should be looking for another hub.

EDIT: There was that loud "chunk" sound/percussion which occurred last week while driving (as per my earlier "loud chunk sound" post) - so maybe this might be related?

Swap hubs from one side to the other, and see if the clunk follows the hub. If it does, time for a new hub. (installation helper: heat the hub with a propane torch to remove the old bearing race. Freeze the new bearing race to help install it in the hub.)

Update: the bearings are fine...what is moving just a wee bit is the upper strut mount.

The four small nuts on top of the tower are fine, but there is just a bit of movement just underneath the top of the tower which I can feel - thinking at this point that the upper bearing might be going out.

At any rate...while it doesn't seem like things are about to fly apart - I will be doing a bit more digging on this issue soon.

Meanwhile - I'd earlier ebayed a completely assembled drivers side steering knuckle with installed hub and brake dust shield....all for 56.00. Could be garbage, but the sale was ending before I would have been able to fully diagnose the above strut issue - and I figure at that price its no big deal.