I've been having some issues with vibration between 65 and 75mph, so I took my car into a shop and had them balance the wheels. Once they had it up on the lift, they noted some movement on the drivers side rotor. I felt it too, it was the 12 and 6 o'clock variety. They thought I needed to have my bearings repacked and reset. I did that about two years ago. Is it possible that something came loose? The shop did not want to check the nuts and re-tighten as necessary (even thought I would pay for that time), if I wouldn't allow them to replace, or repack the bearings, they were out. So I left with rebalanced wheels, but I have to address this slight wobble.

I still saw plenty of grease from what I could see when I popped the cap off.

Ball joints were replaced about 50,000 miles ago. I used Lemforders.

Any idea where I should look? Thanks.

 

 

At least it worked ok which is a bonus.

 

 

They certainly do. Movement at 6 and 12 is a sign of this and it does not need very much wear to show in the ride/ handling.

 

Both of my front stub axles had grooves on the underneath where the inner bearing was. It is caused by the bearing spinning on the axle. Could also be a ball joint, you can check this by jacking up the front wheel under the spring pan.

I ended up machining spacers that go between the inner and outer bearing to lock them

 

 

Last stub axles l fitted were locally produced (Australia) and resulted in a light drift fit of bearings. Much more desirable than loose from the get go.

 

If the bearings are locked in place by a spacer, or have to be drifted into the stub axle, how do you adjust them? Shims?

Cheers
DD

 

Yes, shims, or trial fit, measure the float, machine the spacer, etc etc. IMO having had the spacers, and mild steel ones are no good at all as they soon indent and produce float again, shims are a far easier way to adjust them. Warrjon made his out of harder steel, and they have not shown the wear problems mine did. Anyway, I took mine off!

 

I have then on both front wheels and they were machined to provide 0.001" end float with the castle nut tight. I machined mine to fit but end float could be set with shims if you had someone else make spacers. The way I would approach this is to machine the spacer small with 2 washers at the front bearing, shims could be placed between the washers to set end float.

Greg I have thought about yours and struggle to understand how they indented if they were tight against the bearings, unless they were not mated to the bearing all the way around, ie kicked slightly.

Mine are machined with a taper inside so they are a loose slip fit on the sub axle. I have not had my front hubs off since I did this 5 years ago but I do check front wheels for play every service, end float has not changed.

My spacers were machined from 4140 which was from my scrap bin, 1045 would also work well and be cheaper if you had to purchase it.

edit - The spacers are different lengths due to manufacturing tolerances in the bearings/axle assembly

 

I was talking to my mate this morning (he used to build XJS and E Type race cars) and asked him what he did.

On the road cars he used Loctite bearing retainer.

On the race cars they machined spacers from 1020 mild steel