So I had play in my driver's side front wheel at all angles 12-6, 2-7 everywhere.  The ball joint is definatly not moving nor is the tie rod.  I replaced the wheel bearings and the race.  I had them bearing and race pressed in and did the rest myself.  There is still the same amount of play in the wheel.  I can see that the play must be coming from the hub but the hub part that houses the race assembly was a snug fit when i was putting it back onto the spindle part and the race had to pressed into the hub with some resistance so it seemed to be a tight fit also. 

Any suggestions as to why there is still play in the wheel?  Do I probably need a new hub?  What is the torque spec for the hub bearings? 

Thanks

Jon

Check your king pins...Boxcar,,,

You didn't say what you have, Boxcar could be right

If it is a kicker this is what '93 FSM lists.
93 Tracker - Tighten wheel bearing locknut to 155lb.ft.
                  Tighten brake caliper pin bolt to 65 lb.ft

Most of us old school, shade tree, backyard mechanics (in other words self taught) do not tighten wheel bearings to these specs.   And they loosen up and wear out the bearings.

Thanks for the responses guys.  I was a bit hastey in posting....glad you could discern what I was asking...lol.   

I should've also mentioned that it is a 94 sidekick.  Would it still have a torque spec of 155lbs?  Seems like the wheel wouldn't turn with that much torque on the bearings.

Thanks for the responses guys.  I was a bit hastey in posting....glad you could discern what I was asking...lol.   

I should've also mentioned that it is a 94 sidekick.  Would it still have a torque spec of 155lbs?  Seems like the wheel wouldn't turn with that much torque on the bearings.

Different way of doing it.  "Self taught" isn't always right (although I don't like to admit it ).

It also depends on your hub.  Some Trackers have a one-piece bearing that is pressed in while others have the older two piece ones.  I think that is where some of the issues come from.

I had a shop replace a wheel bearing once as I didn't have time to do it myself, lasted two weeks...

NEED HELP!!!!
In an effort to keep redundant threads to a minumum, I'm going to post in the thread...
My rig is also a '94 Sidekick.  (JLX, 4dr, 16v, 4x4)  I too replaced the front drivers side wheel bearing(s) due to excessive play.  And the new bearing(s) still has excessive play.  I tried everything from 120 to 180ft/lbs of torque on the spindle nut.  Can someone help describe what's going on here?!?  Is thte thrust washer (between the spindle nut and the outer bearing) a type of crush washer?  If mine is too thin it could be causing an issue...
One a side note, the wheel bearing I removed was only a couple months old.  It was a KOYO brand and it's design was a ball-bearing type, and not seperable (both bearings were contained in the outer race 'casette').  The new bearing is a Duralast brand (the only one available on a Sunday), and has conical / tapered style bearings, and they can come out of the shared outer race.  Either way, neither bearing is getting crushed down correctly and therefore not getting rid of the slop.  PLEASE HELP with any ideas...   
I'll attach two pics.  One is the old bearing on the spindle.  Second is the new bearing in the wheel hub.

OK, I got it fixed!!!
Thanks to my cuz Greg M., he offered up a spare front spindle/hub/rotor/etc assembly.  It was in great condition.  After dissecting it, and trying different configurations with my parts, I first narrowed the slop down to either a bad spindle or wheel hub.  Further testing verified that while his spindle was nicer, the actual issue was in my wheel hub.  There appeared to be some play between the wheel bearing's outer race and the wheel hub.  This is very odd in my opinion.  We used an air-powered press to install the bearing, so it's hard to comment on how difficult / easy the race was installed.  But this lead me to inspect the bearing we had removed previously... It's markings are odd.  It's almost as if there are random contact points where the hub and race were touching.  And about 60% of the race's outer surface appears untouched by the hub.  It's like the hub had expanded but had enough corrosion or something to keep the bearing race from just dropping in.  But loose enough that there is slop involved...
So anyway, I reinstalled all the good parts and there is no slop anymore!
Here are 2 pics.  One is of the two spindles.  The other is the original bearing we removed that has markings that make it look like it wasn't seated nicely in the wheel hub.

I will add my .02

I have re torqued 4-5 times, and twice replaced my sami's passenger front bearing. My current fix will be replacing the entire corner assym. with spare front axle parts.  Im glad I read this post as its easy to see how this could be the case for me as well.

In my case, I know for sure this is the corner that spun an axle shaft outside of the birfield.  It rattled around inside for a good while before I discovered it was broke.  I did replace the noticeably damaged parts afterwards... and that brings me current to today.

So maybe at some point something similar occurred with your rig ...a result of heat?  Thanks for the topic and I will at some point be (again) rebuilding my corner with trouble-free parts!

Its a bummer to read a thread where the solution to a problem isn't shared... So that's why I'm trying to follow up and share the knowledge.  

Today, my cuz and I pressed out the Duralast bearing (purchased last Sunday) out of the problematic wheel hub (it seemed to come out very easy).  Inside the hub was a very telling grease mark... You could see that the race was only touching the middle of the wheel hub, contacting only about 30% of the surface area.  The no-contact points were where the actual bearings run on the outer race at the inner and outer edges.  This could definitely result in a situation that resembled worn or loose bearings, when in fact its the wheel hub thats expanded out of its spec range.
Case closed.

Thanks for the responses guys.  I was a bit hastey in posting....glad you could discern what I was asking...lol.   

I should've also mentioned that it is a 94 sidekick.  Would it still have a torque spec of 155lbs?  Seems like the wheel wouldn't turn with that much torque on the bearings.

I had the same problem with a '96 Tracker.

It turned out to be a manufacturing defect in then bearing!

Somehow, one of the races was machined incorrectly.  The symptom was that, no matter how much torque one applied to the bearing nut, the races would never "tighten up" enough to remove the looseness.

Another bearing set was purchased a different parts store.  The new bearing set installed and torqued perfectly!

The first parts store accepted the defective return and provided a refund.

I hope that this helps! 

Quote from: WVzuk on May 18, 2012, 11:01:11 AM

Thanks for the responses guys.  I was a bit hastey in posting....glad you could discern what I was asking...lol.   

I should've also mentioned that it is a 94 sidekick.  Would it still have a torque spec of 155lbs?  Seems like the wheel wouldn't turn with that much torque on the bearings.

I had the same problem with a '96 Tracker.

It turned out to be a manufacturing defect in then bearing!

Somehow, one of the races was machined incorrectly.  The symptom was that, no matter how much torque one applied to the bearing nut, the races would never "tighten up" enough to remove the looseness.

Another bearing set was purchased a different parts store.  The new bearing set installed and torqued perfectly!

The first parts store accepted the defective return and provided a refund.

I hope that this helps! 

That's really interesting... was it just the inside diameter of the inner races that didn't match up?  Or was it the shared outer race that wasn't perfectly symmetrical?
The simplicity of the 'cassette' bearing design is kinda nice, but there are enough issues with it that I kinda prefer the old style (2 bearings and 2 races, further apart on the spindle) like on a samurai or Dana axle...