Author Topic: Front hub bearing wear FWD mod. (Read 229 times)

67 evil eleanor · « **on:** January, 23, 2012, 08:52:35 AM »

I bought a couple of sets of front drive hub/nuckles and it seems that there is some wear but I'm not exactly sure. On both sets if the tire was mounted and on the vehicle and on a jack, there would be about 1/4" of lateral movement pushing and pulling on the top or bottom of the tire. I feel with the type bearing used in these they would have to be some play but I'm not sure how much is too much. Both sets are from vehicles with around 60k miles.

RyanG85 · « **Reply #1 on:** January, 23, 2012, 09:40:17 AM »

There should really be no play in the bearings. It could be hard to tell though till you get the half shaft installed and torqued down. The half shaft sandwiches everything together.

Mach1Rider · « **Reply #2 on:** January, 23, 2012, 10:15:10 AM »

What are the hubs off of?
The hubs on my 01 escape have flat roller brgs and have no play.
They are sealed and pressed in and the halfshafts do nothing for compressing the bearings
like the tapered style.

RyanG85 · « **Reply #3 on:** January, 23, 2012, 10:43:51 AM »

True but the inner race is a 2 piece design and sometimes depending how a used one is removed, the inner races can slightly spread and cause some play.

RyanG85 · « **Reply #4 on:** January, 23, 2012, 11:57:03 AM »

If bearings are needed, you should be able to get a good quality bearing for around $50. Since the knuckle is off the car, they press in and out pretty easily as long as you have a press.

Sluggo · « **Reply #5 on:** January, 23, 2012, 05:13:14 PM »

I doubt they are bad at 60k. Unless they were on a car that was rolled around with no axle shafts in place.

Any time we need to move a car that has the axles out we put casters on the rockers.

I would not condemn them until you have them preloaded.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

Mach1Rider · « **Reply #6 on:** January, 24, 2012, 09:27:59 AM »

After looking at both Rock Auot and Napa parts at the 04 Mazda3 front wheel hubs,
They both show a flat style roller bearing one peice hub.
So imho, there should be no play in the bearing with eather the jackshaft installed or not.

67 evil eleanor · « **Reply #7 on:** January, 24, 2012, 07:54:10 PM »

I worked a bit in the garage tonight and now have found out the bearings are bad. After looking at how the rust had formed it appears that the hubs were stored in a flat position where rain water has entered the housing and some nasty brown oily crap ran out. Coming from a junk yard, there's no guarantee that the car wasn't rolled around without the half shafts in place. For the money, I'll pop them in there. For future note, what is the reason for not rolling a vehicle with out the half shaft bolted in place? Does it damage the race?