So question is in the title. I can’t remember if you grab the top and bottom of tire while car is lifted should there be no play or just slight wiggle?

I recently wondered the same thing. I feel that there should be a little play indicating the wheel bearings are "loaded/adjusted" correctly. Unfortunately, without the wheel in place, it's quite difficult for me to know if the wheel bearings are tight enough. Alot of adjust, snug the wheel down and check.

Wondering what the what others will say without doing a search.

Others can correct me, but there should only be slight detectable play, if any detectable play at all.
If when you grab the top of the wheel and push/pull it back and forth you hear/feel a clicking sound, the bearing is too loose. It's a fine balance between too loose and too tight, but it should be obvious when it's too loose.
To set the amount of play, tighten the wheel nut until with a little effort you can just barely move the washer beneath it with the tip of a screwdriver.

double post deleted

Moving the washer was capt’n krustys old recommendation

I really n a slight play
But it’s hard to describe without hands on you inspection

Moving the washer is also the Porsche factory's recommendation. It's outlined in the service manual.

You should be able to slide the washer but bearings shouldn’t have play. Play in a bearing makes it wear out very quickly.

Also, if tight enough per the washer-moving method but there is still play, there have been issues with shock not fitting perfectly tight in the strut top nut.

Yes. Sometimes wheel movement is misdiagnosed as wheel bearing when it is actually some play in the top of the strut mount. When you do your check by hands on the top and bottom of the wheel looking for play, notice the strut and see if it is moving with the wheel.

with the two previous posts. I chased my tail for a year before finding this out.

Not perfect but based on info (from where I forget), I wrapped a piece of 10-gauge copper wire around before tightening the strut nut.

Not uncommon in our cars. It’s easy to drop the strut to check. Impact gun removes the top nut and then place a jack under the ball joint to move the strut up into the tower when your are ready to reattach. Should take 5-10 minutes.

Tapered roller bearings will realize best life with just a wee tad bit of preload...but if you go just a blonde one past that, bearing life will dive (like 1000 miles or less). When we're dealing with sealed double row bearings, like one might find in a modern front wheel car, the "clearance" or "preload" is set by precision grinding of the inboard and outboard inner race mating surfaces, and in that controlled production environment, accuracy is achievable. When in the field assembling non-sealed tapered rollers, like on a 914 front, Timken (leading bearing manufacturer) specifies 0.002" or so of lateral detectable play measured near the OD of the rotor. A bearing assembly that's slightly loose has nearly the same life and load capacity as one that's set up absolutely perfectly with a slight bit of preload, but exponentially more life than an assembly that's set up too tight. Best to error on the side of caution.

Too much play won't hurt bearing life much, but it will result in caliper piston knockback, so ideally we want to keep play at a minimum, but still every so slightly detectable.

You can pull the strut up with a wire wrapped around a bolt...see this thread:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=288552

Paul

The method I've always used (especially as a quick pre-autoX check) is just a slight wiggle. If you feel more than the slightest clicking through the wheel when you push and pull on the top, that's a sign you need to adjust the bearings. Definitely if you hear or feel a clunk-clunk!

AFAIK, going to zero play is too tight and runs a significant risk of killing the bearings prematurely.

--DD