Strick

I have my Vette jacked up and the passenger side wheel has (what I think) a little play in it. When I try to wiggle the wheel holding it in the 3 and 9 o'clock positons there is no movement, but when I wiggle the wheel holding it at the 12 and 6 o'clock position there is a little movement and it seems to be located near where the hub bearing might be. Am I just looking too hard for something or is it a sign of wearing out? Just how do you check for worn hub bearings? Thanks guys. I don't want to go out on the course and have a wheel come off.

Diesel68

The first thing I would check is to make sure that the nut for the hub is torqued properly. If it is not tight enough, there will be play in your wheel. I had mine one time loosen up and it destroyed my bearing and a ujoint. I put a drop of red loctite and that fixed that problem.

If it is tight, there really shouldn't be any play in your wheel. If there is, it depends how much before I would replace it. If it moves just a hair and you have doubts, I would wait. If you can hear it click and/or there is measureable movement, then I would start planning on replacing it.

Don't worry too much about a wheel falling off. When I bought my car, both rear bearings were quite worn, and I autocrossed on them a few times before before I discovered they needed replacing. It will take quite a bit of abuse before a wheel falls off.

CFI-EFI

If you mean the spindle nut, that isn't true. The wheel bolts to the wheel bearing/hub assembly. The hub assembly bolts to the knuckle. You could remove the spindle nut and then the spindle, itself. There wouldn't be any wheel play with good bearings. And with bad wheel bearings, the play wouldn't be any worse.

The wheel goes round and round. If the wheel bearing is worn or has any play in it, the play will be present for 360° of wheel rotation. The point of checking the wheel bearing for play in one plane and not another is to eliminate play from other causes. If it's tight checking at 3:00 and 9:00, it's tight everywhere. If there is play at 12:00 and 6:00, it has to be something else, like maybe the strut rod bushings or the tie rod, at one end or the other.

RACE ON!!!

Strick

Thanks for the words of wisdom. The bearing doesn't howl or grind so I think it will last a few more races (auto-cross). The Helms had me jack the rear up, start it up and put it in gear to listen for noises. Sounded quiet to me and the wheel spun very true. It also instructed me on how to measure any movement with a dial gauge. Again, 3 & 9 positions had no movement, but 12 & 6 had measurable movement. I'll inspect further as CFI_EFI suggested.

tonymax2

ittlfly

Tom.
CFI-EFI is correct (as usual). Movement at the 6-12 o'clock position USUALY indicates worn tie rods. YOu can manual check them by placing your hand on the bottom of the tie rod and apply pressure upward (towards the top of the car). There should be absoultely no movement in the joint itself;up or down.... EXCEPT: ROTATIONAL MOVEMENT. Hope that makes sense.

Diesel68

The name of the nut eluded me when I made my first post.

This definitely makes sense, but the half-shaft is an integral piece of the spindle assembly because it plays a big role in controlling camber. The strut rods obviously are the lower attachment to the spindle that set camber, but it needs a second attachment to control the movement. The toe rods only really control toe, so that leaves the half-shafts responsible for camber (in addition to turning the wheels). So if the spindle nut is loose, there will be play at 12 and 6 oclock.

My car one day started feeling really loose. When I jacked up the car, my passenger rear wheel had over .25 inches of play. It scared the hell out of me. I noticed the spindle nut was loose. I torqued it very tight again and immediately the wheel was tight with no play, but the damage was done. With out the half-shaft torqued tight, it was not controlling the camber properly and it literally sheared the inside of the hub/bearing off. I got a new hub, and made sure to torque the nut down tight and with a little loctite. I probably should have gotten a new nut, but this cheap fix did the trick.

What annoys me though is that I knew there was some play in the hub after haven replaced it 6 months prior. About a month before I replaced it a second time, it was nowhere near as bad, but there was some measureable play. I paid no attention though because reading the boards it was made out that these were sensitive pieces that went bad every year if heavily autocrossed and open tracked, etc. I should have torqued that bolt down properly thinking back in retrospect.

Understand I am not trying to start anything, and you definitely gave good advice. All I am trying to do is pass on what I have experienced for others to learn.

REDC4CORVETTE

If racing go with the strongest hubs you can get. I still use the GM units .I have not found any others to be any stronger.
But I do have to knock out the studs and replace them with longer ones.NHRA rules.