Loose front hubs - bearings?

[treehugger]

Hi,

Newbie to the forum. I'm looking for a bit of help please...

I’ve a problem with my hubs, in that when removing the wheels to check brake pads, noticed the front hubs seem to have play in them. I’ve replaced a bush in the steering damper recently and am fairly sure I need to replace the ball joint on the drop arm, as there's a knocking noise coming from there when rocking the steering wheel from side to side, but don’t think these could have anything to do with the hubs.

I was hoping that they would be the old style with two nuts and lock-tab washer, as the method for tightening looks fairly straight forward. I don’t seem to be able to find a good tutorial on how to tighten up this play on the type of hubs I have.  8-[

Am I right in guessing that perhaps I can’t, and it’s going to be more of a full dismantle and replace all seals, wahsers and bearings? If so, what’s the idea with a dial guage? End float? Shims? Why does it say in the workshop manual to use 2 spanners when tightening and loosening unions when removing the caliper?  :?

Thanks in anticipation (and despair!)

[Mark_Solesbury]

This is what you will have.



You need to remove 1 to 5 and will see the two lock nuts. You will need a hub nut spanner to remove them without damaging them - 52mm i think it is.
Remove first one, remove lock washer tighten second one till it bites, then back 1/4 turn to allow for movement when hot etc...

Put everything back with a new gasket :)

Hope it helps.

Edit:

Just a thought - if when you can feel the play the brake disk does not move with the swivel housing (The big bit where the track rods attach) then i would say tighten the wheel bearings. If the swivel housing moves and there is play between that and hte chrome ball, then its the swivel bearings. These are not hard to replace, but seems daunting because you have to remove the whole assey back to the axle :)

[Eeyore]

Just to add to what Mark has already said, with the relevent front wheel jacked up, grab the tyre left and right and wiggle it. Then grab the tyre top and bottom and wiggle it. Where does it move?

If it moves left/right and top/bottom - the wheel bearing needs attention
If it moves left/right only - the steering joints need attention
If it moves top/bottom only - the swivel needs looking at

Quick and dirty tests - gotta love 'em!

Cheers
Eeyore

[Les Henson]

How to adjust the wheel bearings.

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=7969


Les. :)

[Mark_Solesbury]

Ahh Arise Sir Les.

I was gonna link you, but dont like ripping off other peeps work!

[treehugger]

Hi Chaps,

Thanks for the info/advice. It would appear from the point of the drive member gasket (which is missing incidentally!) I have 1 x lock nut which looks like the attached, then a bearing, so setup is not the same as that covered by Les. Thanks though Les, I have found your tutorials very good to follow for other repairs.

It feels like play is more horizontal than vertical, however ther is play vertically too, so probably is bearings. I didn't want to dismantle the whole hub and remove the caliper etc. if not necessary, but looks like that's the way to go.

I haven't found a technical archive on here... Maybe a post could be pinned as a technical archive? Or is that encroaching on LR4x4. If so, I'd happily photo-document the process to be added should my documetary skills make the grade.

[Les Henson]

A common conversion is to junk the single nut and fit the two nut and lockwasher arrangement off a 200/300TDi. The inner bearings are twin taper roller and are therefore adjustable. Seems odd to fit adjustable bearings and then not be able to adjust them.


Les.

[kizz81]

you say you have a knocking in your steering? is it like a soft knock that you can feel rather than hear?

let me know what it turns out to be as i have a knoking in the steering i just put it down to bigger tyres

cheers kieran

[treehugger]

you say you have a knocking in your steering? is it like a soft knock that you can feel rather than hear?

let me know what it turns out to be as i have a knoking in the steering i just put it down to bigger tyres

cheers kieran

Hi Kieran,

You can both hear more than feel the knock. I'm 90% certain that it is the drop arm ball joint. Check out Les' tutorial on this one (http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=10088) eek!  [-o<

I'll let you know when I've tackled it. I'm saving this job for the bank holiday weekend.

Gareth

[treehugger]

Update - thanks for all the advice.

The issue was the bearings. I couldn't remove the bearing and spacer without having to remove the caliper and the whole hub. Having done this, I found the bearings are shot to [PooPoo]. New bearings now on order. I have junked the stake nut and replaced with the 200/300tdi setup of two nuts and lock washer - much easier to adjust, less force needed and bearings can now be adjusted anywhere.

Kieran - as for the drop arm ball joint, it's been moved forward to this weekend. You can see the issue if you crawl underneath and get somebody to move your steering wheel back and forth.

Gareth