When I took my car apart 8 months ago, it was still on the raod as a daily driver. I never noticed anything abnormal about the back end when I test drove it.
Now that I am putting it back together I noticed that, without the rear axles in the wheels, I can rock the whole wheel and hub assembly up and down and side to side. This seems to be rocking in the bearing area as the rear control arm does not move.
Measuring at the largest diameter of the rim there is about 1/16" movement. This "play" is the same top to bottom or side to side and is the same on both rear wheels.
I am a mechanic by trade but have never worked on this type of rear suspension so I don't know if it is normal, acceptable, or just plain worn out. I have not been able to find a factory "spec" on it so I don't have something to compare to.
Can anyone help?
Oh yeah that's a stupid question, members of this site know just about everything about 914's.

there have been a few posts on rear bearings having some noticable slop. (even new ones!) search here and on that bird board.

The key bit of info is that the axles are out. If there is no compression from a fully torqued stub axle, there's nothing to hold the double row bearing together and slop can be detected. The real question here, was the car moved around without the stub? If so, the bearing and/or the grease seal may have been damaged. This may be a good time to replace a 30 yr old bearing.

John Jentz

John has a good point. Replace them now because you already have access.

We had to do the trick under the car after caliper removal, etc., and with a home-fabricated bearing extraction tool (after studying the one on the PP website ). The only way to do it without the tool is to remove the trailer arm and bring it to a shop to press out/in the bearings.

My bearings didn't show excessive play though, but made a squeeking, grinding noise.

If the castle nut has been removed, this is normal.
If the castle nut is tight, you have fried bearings.
If you have been letting it sit on the wheels with the castle nut removed, replace the bearings.