Brian Morris

I'm wondering about adjusting the front wheel bearings. I know what the manual says about being able to move the washer, but I've read and it also seems to me that is too loose - I can definitely feel clunking wiggling the rotor (very hard) this way.

The way I've been taught in the past to adjust bearings is to tighten them down until you feel no play then back off until you *just* feel them to loosen. That's how I have them now - I can feel a tiny amount of play but no clunking. 5 degrees tighter and there's no play, 5 degrees looser and I feel a tiny amount of clunking. I'm a little worried that this is too tight - it's definitely not too loose.

Any help would be appreciated. This is a 80% track car so I'd like the bearings to be right on.

Thanks.
--Brian Morris
89 951

Loki

I can't remember exactly what the workshop manual says, but the way you did it sounds about right. If they are too tight and you chew up your bearings, your going to have to fork out a whole $20 a side. As long as you didn't use a hammer to tap on the retaining clamp(definite no in the shop manual), you should be alright. Sorry I couldn't be more specific, but I hate to see unanswered posts.

Chris

Dave E

It depends on the heat you will generate, the hubs expand alot on the track. I adjusted mine like the procedure mentioned and the hubs got so hot on the track, even with really good ducting, the dust caps fell off due to different expansion rates between the aluminum hubs and the steel caps(they stayed stuck in the wheels though) After I loosened them to the same "feeling" when they were hot, I felt they worked well and the dust caps didn't come off. On the street, the way they describe it in the manual is accurate.

Brian Morris

Dave,

I'm not sure I completely understood your reply. So you adjusted yours the way I've done, and you thought they created too much heat that way so you loosened them up a little. Is that what you did?

Thanks.

--Brian

Dave E

Well, sort of. I was re-installing the dust caps at the track when the hubs were hot and checked the bearing pre-load at the same time. I found it to be too tight,so I set it(like the book says to) with the hubs hot, and this made the hubs both run cooler(I can only assume the extra friction from too much pre-load for track conditions caused some of this heat...it was the only variable that changed) and the dust caps stayed on better( it should be noted that the caps were safety wired on on one side, if I had wired both sides, ie. at 180 degrees, they probably would have stayed on fine , but I wouldn't have realized that I was running excessive pre-load for the heat and hub expansion created on the track. I was at the glen.) I haven't yet checked the pre-load since I got back and with the hubs cold, but I'll let you know if there is too much play for the street with the setting I found to work on the track. BTW, I use big reds, pagid orange pads, alcon drilled 13" race rotors and 225 kuhmo victoracers, with proper ducting (3") and a backing plate that disallows air to escape from anywhere but through the rotor vanes and holes. I was braking from about 140 to 80ish on the back straight and 120 to 70ish on the front straight, as late as possible. These factors add alot of heat, you may not be as hard on your car, so this info might not matter, but if anyone has found a dust cap falling off, hub expansion, wheel bearing pre-load solution, please let us know.I'm not sure a compromise exists for bearing pre-load that works both on the street and the track.