[Shotimes] Re: Bad Ball Joints or Wheel Bearings?

[Ian Fisher]

Yes
The wheel shaking method only works for a seriously
failed wheel bearing. The only really good way to
determine if it's bad is to remove the brakes and spin
the hub by hand. If it's not silent and smooth, the
bearing is bad. If the hub is really loose it is
probably bad as well. There might be run out specs
somewhere; you might be able to check it with a dial
indicator.

Keep in mind that when the halfshaft nut is removed, a
used bearing will have a little play in it.

Ian

--- Alan Fanning <Awfanning@earthlink.net> wrote:

> I'd say it's just barely perceptible, so maybe .030"
> or less?  I'll see if I
> can put a dial indicator on it tomorrow. My '91
> seems to have a bit more.
> 
> Having given this a little more thought, shouldn't
> wheel bearing play exist
> at across any axis you choose, where ball joint play
> would be a max when the
> wheel is jiggled across the horizontal axis?
> 
>     Alan
> 
> 
> wrote:
> 
> >> To my disappointment, there is a tiny little bit
> of play on
> >> the passenger side when shaking the wheel about
> the horizontal plane (hands
> >> at 12:00 and 6:00).
> > 
> > That isn't that bad.  'Course you need to say how
> much a tiny bit of play is.
> > I had
> > 1/4 of an inch of play on Lowrider in a brand new
> bearing when I was getting
> > ready
> > to leave for the convention in Frederick in 2002. 
> That was immediately after
> > I had
> > the bearing replaced when the old one had about an
> inch of play.  These were
> > (still
> > are) Scott Chan's Wilwood knuckles that were new
> from TCE in about 1996 or so.
> > That
> > was the left side....the right side is still
> original, and at last check
> > (2004) had
> > hardly any measurable play.
> > 
> >> So, how do I tell whether the play is the result
> of bad ball joints or bad
> >> wheel bearings? The car has 82k easy miles on it.
> > 
> > According to Helms, it takes two folks...one to
> wiggle the wheel, and one to
> > observe
> > the lower ball joint.  If there is any discernable
> movement there at all, you
> > need
> > to replace it or the LCA, whichever you want to
> do.  LCAs for SHOs are
> > different
> > than SLOs, and are about $82 each (left and right
> are different) at NAPA.
> > 
> > I tried to find a spec for wheel bearing play in
> Helms, and couldn't.  Someone
> > else
> > might know.
> > 
> > George
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