VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Tech Talk Adjusting wheel bearings and common sense

For the past month or so, I have been hearing that dreaded "wah, wah, wah" sound, slowly getting worse. You know it is a bearing somewhere becoming unhappy. I thought it was from the rear, but on the way to the local Cruise-In, the Bride told me it was definitely in the front. We'll be driving the '53 on a 1,000 mile roundtrip to the Central Meet this coming week, so I thought I better have a look at the front wheel bearings. And yep, both inners were looking pretty bad. And when I opened it up, they were clearly set up too loose (I didn't put them in the last time).

So NAPA came up with all 4 new bearings for me, and in they went this morning.

Now here's the point - just for the heck of it, I decided to look in the Shop Manual about this task that we have all done many times. The Manual says, once all assembled, to torque the castle nut to 33 Foot Pounds, and then back off not more tha 1/6 turn. (this is possible because on the 53 the spindles are drilled horizontal and vertical, so you never need to turn more than 1/6 to find the next hole alignment). The Manual even says "don't adjust them on the loose side, because this will not allow the bearings to seat properly in the races."

But Boy-oh-boy, that seems really tight! I did it their way, and they spin fine, and they are quiet. But I have been talking to myself ever since that I need to loosen them back up some.

Now I grew up believing that you tightened them gently, until you eliminated all play, and then backed off a hair and put in the cotter pin. And you might have just the slightest bit of wiggle in there when you got it all together. And that loose was good, better than too tight.

I drove the car 10 miles, and the hubs were pretty warm. Granted, it was a hot sunny day, but they were definitely warm.

I am wondering what any of you might care to share on your thoughts on setting up the bearing so tight.

If the wheels spin freely and don't come to an abrupt stop, you can feel no loosness, then you are OK.
You may want to check the adjustment again before you leave to make sure the bearins didn't loosen-up.
On my '39 I could never find the perfect spot between cotter pim holes so I inserted a king pin shim between the washer and outter bearing cup.

So you're saying the tight setting is the way to go?

I have never used a torgue setting in 40 years as a mechanic. I take the nut up until light pressure, spin the wheel, loosen the nut and retighten until it just seats on the bearing and the split pin will fit, occassionally you have to alter for split pin alignment.
Tony

I never previously used a torque wrench either, as above. Just the "old school" method, as Tony described. That's why I was so surprised to see what it said in the Shop Manual.

So of course I had to go put it back up in the air and pull the wheels again this morning. It was interesting - although still tighter than I would have set them up, they had relaxed quite a bit, to maybe 10 - 15 Ft Lbs. I pulled them apart, touched up the grease packing a bit, and put them back together like we have all always done it.

I marked the nut and hub, just to see where I ended up. Would you believe, one side ended up in the very same slot (!), and the other side was one notch looser (1/6 of a turn) than the "by the book" method.

I guess they do seat into place. And it is actually not much of a distance from "tight" to "finger tight" after all. The book method, with backing off a 1/6 turn, ends up pretty darn close to the old way. I was surprised. But now I'll sleep better having re-set them the old way.

I have always did it the tighten with a 12 inch Crescent wrench and spin, then tighten again then see if there is any play side to side, and back off to the next hole. I figured that working it that way worked the extra grease away from contact point between the balls and the race.
Did you use the new high temp grease marketed for the roller bearing hubs with disc brakes?
I have always used the long fiber wheel bearing grease made for ball bearings back in the early 1950s and before, and keep the high temp smooth lithium grease for the modern roller bearings. I owned a Chevrolet 4x4 Surburban with full time 4 wheel drive and bought the special high temp grease for it and also used it for other modern wheel bearings and the trailer bearings.
The very smoothest wheel bearings that I have ever found are the original front wheel bearings on the 1928 sedan. once spun by hand the front wheels on the 28 will spin forever.
I always back off the front brake shoes when I work on the 28's wheel bearings, then the last thing I do is adjust the shoes for no shoe drag, and a bit of slack. It seems to work best for me.

I bring the nut up tight. I would guess it would be about 33 lbs. Anyway, I then back off two notches and put the cotter ("Split Pin" Down Under). When I grab the top and bottom of the wheel, I can feel just an itsi-bitsy bit of loose motion.

I had a fellow at a local gas station repack the front wheel bearings on my 53 Cadillac Coupe De Ville back in 58. Wife and I drove to Cleveland and back. Busted the right front wheel outer bearing coming back through VA. Mechanic told me it had been pulled down too tight.

Charlie

BTW: Itsy-bitsy is just a tad off a smidgin.

First we have to split the discussion.

There are ball bearings used in your truck and then there are roller bearings (or tapered as some prefer to call them) used in most Chevrolets starting approx 1961.

The ball bearing must be set up with a "preload" otherwise they will fail. Yes, the procedures you read about torquing to 33 ft lbs is correct and backing off slightly, but no more than 1/6 turn is the proper procedure for adjusting the desired preload.

On the other hand, tapered roller bearings need freeplay to function properly and ideally there should be between .003 and .010" of freeplay in the hub when the bearings are installed properly. Usually torqued to 12 ft lbs, back off to the nearest nut flat then insert cotter. Measure freeplay.

If there is ZERO - start over.

So ball bearings will fail prematurely with no preload and taper roller bearings will fail prematurely if preloaded.

Seems most of the technicians working on these old Chevys never learned the ball bearing adjustment procedures so they put them in loose, and sooner (rather than later) we hear them moaning

I hope this clears up any old wives tales about bearings.

After torquing to 33 pounds pressure and backing off 1/6, you're backing off up to 60 degrees. Sounds about right to me and should give you a cotter pin opportunities before reaching the limit.
Charlie

I recall having to pre-load the rear-axle bearings on my school bus...But have always "played it by feel" on the fronts and have never had any problems...

The manual is the way to go.

I'm not bad-mouthing manuals...But, it reminds me of how I learned more in six months on the "shop floor", than in all my years in school...

Having been somewhat the same route I have to agree that the manual is not the total answer, but what I learned "on the floor" was pretty general stuff applying to what was serviced where the manual is specific to the make model and year.