A little background:
About two years ago, I noticed that the some of the wheels on my car were touching the brake calipers slightly.
This was after I had driven it several months, but before I got it aligned. I assumed that they were not the correct wheels, backspacing-wise, and had been touching all along and I had not noticed because of all the other noise/vibrations.
After I got the car out of the shop (which ended up needing a rear end rebuild, among other things) I took off the wheel which seemed to be rubbing the worst, the drivers side front. The others had done no more than score a thin line inside the wheel. The drivers side front was hitting pretty good, and when I looked at the caliper I could see that the raised letters on the outside of the caliper (DELCO) were what was hitting. I figured that maybe this caliper was just a little irregular, and was slightly larger than the other. So, being short on funds, I took the grinder and just touched it to the letters on the caliper. Problem solved! (I know, I bubba'ed it :rolleyes: ).
But it actually seemed to work. I have had no problems for well over a year.
Until recently. The last few days, the caliper has started rubbing again. Really badly. I took the wheel off, and I can see where the whole side of the caliper is touching the inside of the wheel. The caliper is not loose, and the brakes work fine. I am at a loss to figure out how the caliper is able to....move, for lack of a better word. The thunking does not get worse when braking, but does increase when I make a sharp left turn.
If I jack up just the one wheel, how much play should it have when I grab the tire and try and move it?
Any thoughts are much appreciated.

 

The first thing I'd do is pull the wheel and rotor and check the condition of your spindle and bearings.

 

How much play should there be in the rotor? Right now, I can take the wheel off and grab the rotor and move it 1/4" to 3/8". Is this excessive?
Also, how hard is it to replace the bearings? Do I need any special tools?


[Modified by Shrike, 9:48 AM 1/30/2002]

 

Sounds like a dangerous condition. Play should be minimal. Make sure you have some lug nuts holding the rotor tightly in position i.e. to ensure that you're measuring bearing play and not slop between rotor and spindle.

 

All right, I'll give that a look.

 

Yeah I would say bearings as well. Maybe its time for a front-end rebuild and you can take care of bearings at same time. Relatively easy/cheap job on the front end. good luck
-terry

 

Do I just pop the grease cap off, remove the cotterpin and the spindle nut, and pull the rotor off? Any tricks to replacing the bearings? Can I get these at the local auto parts, or do I need to order them?

 

Its been awhile since I've done bearings so can't remember procedure off top of my head. I followed procedure in my Haynes manual and had no problems. Yeah, I got my bearings at local parts place. Were really cheap like $20 or $30 IIRC.
-terry