old school wheel bearings: did I do something wrong, or just bad luck?

[BerniniCaCO3]

you know the style of wheel bearing on our GM's, with the nut that you tighten just right.
I've always had a little doubt about these. First time it was too tight, second time I followed someone's advice and ended up with a wiggling bearing too soon (just retightened).

Thought I'd gotten it down-- just tighten all the way until there's no slack to squeeze all the play and grease out, then back off just a little and give a firm but slight 20 ft-lb nudge.

But honestly, I've only ever had to do this on my own cars-- never saw them in the shop I worked at for a time, too old to see any more


Well, so we have this 1989 mercury tracer. Rear bearings are done this way, too.
There was some play, not gross, but not acceptable either. We were on a budget so last November, the drums looked fine-- we just did new bearings and new seal on the old drums We had $1500 in other expenses for other parts at the time.

20,000 miles and 11 months later, suddenly in the past day the left rear bearing just fragmented. Started getting a noise, jacked the car up, noticed extreme slop, pulled it apart and the outer tapered roller bearing was missing 2 rollers and with 3 others cracked.
Bad luck?
cheap chinese bearing?
or something I could have done wrong last november to cause premature wear?

[sly]

not enough grease? I always LOAD up the chamber with grease (I leave air gap space of course for expansion) so that the bearings under load always have grease swimming up to them. Other than that, I'd say cheap chinaman crap if it was indeed made in china.

[RyPow]

This happened to me on my '76 Thunderbird a few years ago. Driving around town, the front end started wandering like crazy and I pull over to find my left front wheel leaning sideways like some "stanced" rice rocket. I pull off the wheel and dust cap, and the outer bearing comes out as individual rollers and pieces of cone frame. She completely grenaded. This was on a 56k car with factory original bearings. Not to mention I had just come from doing 70mph on the highway 10 minutes earlier

I'm not an expert on wheel bearings, however, so the experts will have to chime in with possible explanations.

[BerniniCaCO3]

yeah, that's pretty much our story!

it started just *slightly* pulling to the left a couple weeks ago, which may or may not have had anything to do with anything.

But yesterday, my sister noticed a strange noise while backing up. I swear, it sounded all the world like a flat tire, like rubber going *whump, whump* as it rolls dullenly along the road. She drove 100 miles the day before yesterday. Then yesterday, we all go 2 miles to a music practice room, and she has me listen to it. Odd... and it's only while backing up. Tell her to look at it when she can... But literally 1.5 miles later driving back with the windows down listening to the noise it gets worse, then MUCH worse a block from the house! We drive cautiously to the curb, pull out the suicide jack, have a look... and the wheel is about ready to fall off!

[1980c10]

Spin the rotor by hand while you tighten the nut, once you feel a slight drag when you spin you should be there. Grab the back of the rotor and wiggle it in and out, if it has any play tighten it just a bit more. That's about it, more of a by feel thing.

[gadget73]

20 ft/lb on a wheel bearing is way too much. Its supposed to be inch-pounds. I usually run them in snug, roll the wheel, back it off and then turn the nut in by hand till it makes contact, then just enough further to make the cotter pin line up. It shouldn't be sloppy, but it shouldn't have much drag either.

[85crownHPP]

If you mount the wheel to the hub first, you get a much better feel for the wiggle. I was taught to hand tighten the nut with pliers while spinning it to make sure any excess grease gets pushed out. Then back it off, repeat. back it off enough to feel the play, then tighten up while wiggling until just before you feel the play go away. Don't forget your cotter pin and dust cap!
Also, new bearings need to be packed with grease before installing, not just smeared, and fill the void in the hub with grease like sly mentioned.

[BerniniCaCO3]

yeah-- I think I did install it right.
strange that it failed.
New parts on the way!

Disturbingly, there IS no cotter pin. She was very lucky it did not come off on her. There is a keyway in the shaft, and you're supposed to stake the nut. However, I never could get it firmly staked!

[P72Crazy]

The keyway is for the flat washer that is installed right after the outer bearing (on the installation procedure). This washer on my 88-91 CVPIs is fair thick and just keeps the outer bearing from wallowing around. The hub "nut" is then installed (torque method already mentioned). Then place the retainer and cotter pin in. There is no "staking" of the hub nut any other way. I had problems with this when I first started doing my own brakes. If you get it too tight, you cook the brake pads b/c the wiggle in the rotor (hub) is what "walks back the pads once you get off the brakes (lower the brake pressure). Too loose and you get road wandering and shaky braking. I like to check the "play" with the wheel installed. It's hard to get a real feel if you wiggle the rotor unloaded (my opinion).

[BerniniCaCO3]

On this car (mazda 323), there is no hole drilled for a cotter pin.

[P72Crazy]

Interesting, I missed the car type on the first thread (obviously). Guess I was assuming a Panther car .....my bad.

[BerniniCaCO3]

yeah, my bad. Just figured it was basically the same type of bearing with very few differences (no cotter pin maybe being the only one),
and didn't feel like registering for a mazda forum just for this.

Reading through the replies I'm not sure I did anything wrong 11 months ago when I swapped out the bearings. I really don't.
Bad luck then...
Drum arrived, but bearings still en route. Got timken this time... should check and see what I ordered that failed.
The bearing that failed was from SKF.
Unless it had something to do with putting a new bearing in an old drum?

[gadget73]

if you didn't replace the race with the bearing, they will wear strangely. Normally the bearing comes with a new race and you just change them out. The race is usually a light press fit, but you can drive them out with a punch and a hammer easily if you are careful about it.

[BerniniCaCO3]

Oh! I never realized they were that easy to remove (with a punch).
Press fits always intimidate me, and I thought I'd need special pullers to fit behind the races and pull them out.
And the old races looked fine.... (yeah, I know 'looked fine' isn't an excuse because you can't see tolerances like that with the naked eye, but if they'd looked bad I'd have been more proactive).

It's as good an explanation as any.

I'm glad to report that the other side is OK.
Next time I'll do it right

Everything came in by Thursday,
just paid a shop $20 to hammer in the bearings and swap the tire over --no longer have pneumatics and was worth the convenience-- it's rolling again!