I'm not sure whats going on so I'll just explain...... Got a new 2 post lift and put the car up to show off to my wife While up on the lift I got all excited and did a once around looking at things. I got to the RF wheel, gave it a shake and found the wheel bearing seemed loose. The next day I went to have a look at the bearing, and for starters I just snugged the nut up as it should be. With it like this there was no way the wheel would turn, so I removed the brakes and caliper. removed the rotor, cleaned and inspected the bearings (good) reinstalled dry. Tried to install the caliper, but the top mounting hole of the caliper gets jammed between the rotor and the caliper mounting plate, while the bottom one seems to fit,although its seems a much tighter fit than the left side. The caliper mounting plate compared to the LF one looks good (nice and straight). Thought it might be the rotors.....swapped them and problem remains (they are correct front rotors).
I'm not sure where to go from here, so I thought I'd get your opinions.....

 

I had a similar problem while doing a brake job recently. My situation had a rather simple solution, the rotor was not pushed all the way onto the studs thus causing the caliper to not line up correctly. Hope it ends up being something simple for you.

 

nope thats not it.....mine are still rivited on, but thanks anyhow

 

That's not how front wheel bearings are adjusted.

 

Doesn't the G.M. Spec, book say 24 foot pounds on the frt. wheel bearings?? Doctorgene

 

I have always adjusted front wheel bearings by getting the nut hand tight, then placing a 12" crescent wrench on the nut I allow it to hang down snugging the nut with its weight, then I back it off untill the last hole it passed lines up, and slip in the pin.

Sounds like you may have had one going bad and maybe changed its shape a little by over-tightening? Bearings are cheap, I would put a fresh one on the side that was loose as a starting point.

 

guys.....this is not a bearing tightening class.......I know how to do that, I'm just looking for anyone who maybe had issues like this in the past. Thanks for posting though

 

OK, so you tell us what went wrong.

 

How did the car behave before you drove it onto the lift ? Peace,,,Moosie

 

I was thinking about the part where you said

This just makes me think the bearing is bad. It was probably getting loose, and was finished off by the snugging. I have done this before when I cleaned and repacked 30ish year old wheel bearings. That was the issue I have had in the past that I thought you may have been having. Now if I ever have a questionable one, I replace it for the $12.
Sorry about the bearing tightening lesson :o

 

Well guys thanks for your input.....but I figured out what was wrong. After much measuring, inspecting, swapping parts,swearing......I determined it to be the spindle. Upon close inspection I figured out the spindle had been replaced sometime before I purchased the car. The problem area was the top caliper mount at the spindle. I figured out that it wasn't machined properly from the start, and after removing about 1/8" of material everything fit into place just as it should. I didn't really like grinding on the spindle, but if I screwed it up, I figured I could just replace it again.

76 Prince...I also thought it would be a bearing, but i inspected them and they all looked good

Moosie982....The car always drove like like a champ.I never even knew I had problems

Now If I could only get my hands around the neck of the guy who assembled this so called "brake job" that was done before I bought the car. The book says to lube the back of the pad......This guy took about a teaspoon of wheelbearing grease and put it on each piston. You can only imagine what a mess this made when things heated up.....needless to say I'll be replacing a few things