just had my car MOT done passed ok but was told rear hub pin has bit of play..both sides.I have no idea what this means..any help please

 

I'd guess that they grabbed the rear wheel at 6 and 12 and found it to have a bit of wiggle.

I noticed something similar on my car, but it turned out not to be the hub but just a little play where the half shaft mates to the rear end. What I can't really say is how much wiggle is normal or acceptable.

 

Bottom fulcrum pin has needle rollers either side, can be a bit of a pig to get the bearings out, there are also spacers to take note of which side they come out from, often mistaken for dodgy wheel bearings

 

He'll have done the check Charlie described.

The description 'rear hub pin has bit of play' sounds as if the tester believes he's identified the play as being in the Pivot Pin (item 14):



The two bearings (item 15) can wear and produce play. However, worn hub bearings are just one of the other parts that could produce a similar movement.

If it was unsafe, he'd have failed the vehicle. If it was serious but within acceptable limits, he'd have put an 'advisory' on the MoT Certificate.

Definitely worth checking it yourself next time you have the car jacked up although at times I get the impression testers just feel they have to say something.

Graham

 

This seems to be a common affliction and gets worse in a tough economy when not finding problems makes it looks like they aren't doing their job.

I learned this the hard way from a building inspector and eventually started leaving a few little things for him to note corrections on just to make both our lives easier.

Harder to do on a car, although a slightly out of adjustment headlight or low tire pressure might work.

 

I had the same issue and watched my indi replace the pivot bearings. Next time I would do it myself. Easy job compared to changing the shock bearing which I did do myself.

One simple special tool is needed to knock out the outer races of each of the two bearings. You need a heavy duty cold chisel whith a kink in it, the kink is needed so that you can get the sharp end to catch on the outer race. It then took about 10 hard hit with a hammer to nock the race out. The mechanich had to sharpen the chisel with a grinding wheel a couple of times.

Good luck.

 

I did mine right on the car. Heating the alloy hub with a propane torch at the race areas allowed the races to literally fall out of their bores. It worked great!