Rear Wheel Bearings Loose Options

[bdstone914]

@Superhawk996

' date='Jan 4 2024, 01:54 PM' post='3121815']
Are you sure you have 914/6 or early 911 stubs / hubs?

Just thinking out loud (dangerous); weren’t there some 944 stub or hubs or something that folks were using back in the day to get 5 lug hubs but they needed a 5mm spacer or something like that on the stub axle?

@914sixer
Do you remember any weird stub or hub setups from back in the day when it would have been much harder to find a 914/6 hub?
[/quote]


It is the 74 and later 911 hub that needs a spacer. Thats when they went to a wider beraing.

[Superhawk996]

@bdstone914

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

Thank you for that!

Looking at pictures of OPs hubs, they clearly don’t have the hub centric feature of the 74 and later 911 hubs so I guess that’s (lack of spacer) not the root cause.

[bdstone914]

@bdstone914

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

Thank you for that!

Looking at pictures of OPs hubs, they clearly don’t have the hub centric feature of the 74 and later 911 hubs so I guess that’s (lack of spacer) not the root cause.

Correct. Still a mystery.

[Superhawk996]

Are you sure you have 914/6 or early 911 stubs / hubs?

Our car was a factory 914-6. Pretty darn sure they are 914-6 hubs.

Without actually having something to prevent rotation of the hub an impact isn’t going to give you enough torque to tighten properly.

Not sure what you're referring to regarding the rotation and torque. All I did was install the hub into the bearing in the trailing arm as pictured. Using the all thread rod, nuts and impact wrench method referenced in my initial post to pull the hub into the bearing.

If you're talking about the nut that secures the cv joint / drive shaft, I haven't gotten that far yet.

Is it wishful thinking that this problem goes away once the drive shafts are installed?

So catching up on posts since yesterday

What still isn’t clear to me:


Which is moving laterally - the inner race or the outer race?

As initially stated - after install the outer race should not move at all. Zero lateral movement between outer race and trailing arm bore. None. Zero, never. With or without retainer - it doesn’t matter. This doesn’t depend on anything else.

The inner race (and by extension the hub mounted within it): These are split inner races. I’ve seen some in the past that use a spring clip to secure one inner race to the other inner race just to keep them from separating and having the balls/cages fall out during shipping and handling prior to install. To a casual observer they might appear to be one piece but they are split races.

Without a CV stub installed and properly torqued (220 ish lb-ft) to the hub - there should be no judgement made about lateral movement of the inner races or the hub.

Once the stub and hub/hub nut have been properly torqued (using a torque wrench) then, and only then, there should be zero lateral movement of the hub.

Note; I apologize - in looking at the pictures earlier I should have noted that there are no CV stubs installed. I should have noticed that all we have is the bearing installed into the control arm after the initial bearing install. For some reason I got the impression the whole bearing (including outer race was moving laterally). Shame on me. Hopefully I didn’t make this thread longer than it needed to be to get you a clear answer.

[911_2.2T]

I went through the same last weekend and after I put in the bearing and the Hub I was afraid I had the wrong bearings or damaged the bearing on install. But after putting in the Stub axle and tightening it, all movement was gone.

[DennisV]

I went through the same last weekend and after I put in the bearing and the Hub I was afraid I had the wrong bearings or damaged the bearing on install. But after putting in the Stub axle and tightening it, all movement was gone.

Thanks for sharing this. I was hoping this was the answer, but I'm still uneasy with it. Are you able to tell if the bearing is slipping inside its seat in the trailing arm?

[rjames]

I went through the same last weekend and after I put in the bearing and the Hub I was afraid I had the wrong bearings or damaged the bearing on install. But after putting in the Stub axle and tightening it, all movement was gone.

I'm no expert here, but I don't understand how reinstalling everything would correct an issue where the OD of the bearing was too small. I would think that the whole bearing might be rotating, which could oval out the trailing arm. No?

One of the reasons people sometimes remove the trailing arm just to install the bearing is because the bearings fit so tightly that they can be extremely difficult to press out. They shouldn't be loose in there.

[jhynesrockmtn]

I also did this fairly recently on my BB. Trailing arms off of the car, all removed and replaced. I had to press the bearings in after freezing them. The stub axle was "loose" but the outer portion that contacts the arm was tight. Everything was tight once a proper torque was done after putting them back on the car.

[rgalla9146]

I went through the same last weekend and after I put in the bearing and the Hub I was afraid I had the wrong bearings or damaged the bearing on install. But after putting in the Stub axle and tightening it, all movement was gone.

Denis your pics show the hubs installed but not the stub axles.
When the stub axle (not just the hub) is installed and torqued the assembly is
complete and ready to roll and support the car. Until then you can not judge it.

[Bucci]

I went through the same last weekend and after I put in the bearing and the Hub I was afraid I had the wrong bearings or damaged the bearing on install. But after putting in the Stub axle and tightening it, all movement was gone.

Thanks for sharing this. I was hoping this was the answer, but I'm still uneasy with it. Are you able to tell if the bearing is slipping inside its seat in the trailing arm?

Dennis, I had a very similar issue when I replaced one of my rear bearing. I purchased a new bearing and installed it and it was loose. At that time we determined that the trailing arm was faulty and maybe out of round. I hadinstalled a 3.2 L six cylinder motor and thought the torque damaged the trailing arm.

We found that the replacement bearings are did not have acceptable / good tolerances.

The solution was to use bearing retainer sealant when installing the bearing to take up the tolerance. After doing that, the new bearing worked well and I’ve not had any since..

Loctite Sleeve Retainer 640 - High Strength/High Temp - Green - 1.22-Fl Oz Bottle

https://www.henkel-adhesives.com/us/en/prod...ctite_6400.html

https://www.permatex.com/products/thread-co...adhesive-50-ml/

[DennisV]

Finally able to make time to get back to the car. I am confused at this point. Is it acceptable to have some bearing movement once the hub is installed, but before the stub axel?

There was a request for a video. Here's a 20 second clip. I've secured the rear trailing arm in a vise. I am using my hand to move the hub. You can see there is slight angular movement when I push side to side. It turns with slight smooth resistance.

I assume the orange part of the bearing that is visible is part of the inner bearing and meant to rotate. I can't tell if the outer bearing is moving inside the trailing arm. I think I'd have to tear it back apart to see that.

[burton73]

Finally able to make time to get back to the car. I am confused at this point. Is it acceptable to have some bearing movement once the hub is installed, but before the stub axel?

There was a request for a video. Here's a 20 second clip. I've secured the rear trailing arm in a vise. I am using my hand to move the hub. You can see there is slight angular movement when I push side to side. It turns with slight smooth resistance.

I assume the orange part of the bearing that is visible is part of the inner bearing and meant to rotate. I can't tell if the outer bearing is moving inside the trailing arm. I think I'd have to tear it back apart to see that.

I believe that the bearing does float in the inside, bearings that I have put in machines over the years did so it would fit the shaft angle. All I know is when I tightened up the stub axel it did not move if that makes sense.

Best Bob B

[Literati914]

Torque down the bolts and see if you're still loose (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)


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