Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 14:34:38 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Play in front wheels
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
hi wes,
the first thing you do about evaluating front wheel play, is compare
left-right play with up-down play.
If there is left-right play when you wiggle the wheel, you look for tie rod
ends ( inner or outer ) that are worn. ( and ball joints of course as well )
.
if it's up-down play ........then you think about wheel bearing play.
I would not say that one 'torques' the front wheel bearing adjuster nut
quite - they do need to be tightened until there no play .......
plus I add a smidgen of tension on the nut after that - like a fraction of
an ounce of postive pressure on the bearings .....
like 'barely none' ..but some.
There is also some chance that the races may seat better after a
while......or bearings just wear in some.
It should be easy to tell if there is play in your front wheel bearings,
and rechecking the nut adjustment after several thousand miles of running
wouldn't be a waste of time anyway.
if you push back the brake pads.....
you'll take brake pad drag out of the picture , so you can feel wheel
bearing play better.
if it's an early vanagon with two pistons in each caliper - it's a good time
to make sure the pistons move freely. They tend to get stuck or draggy
after many years - especially the right outer piston, it seems.
there are various tricks for checking ball joint play - which is often
masked by the angle of the hanging suspension. Better to check that with the
suspension more in the loaded angle, when checking ball joint play.
Sometimes shop manuals will specifiy a way to check lower ball joint play,
the top one is easier to see and deal with and inspect.
scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "pickle vanagon" <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 11:46 AM
Subject: Play in front wheels
>I just noticed I have a bit of play in each front wheel. They both
> will shake just a little bit when the front is jacked up. Looks like
> it's not the balljoints. I put in new wheel bearings 2 years back,
> and went through the whole song and dance then to carefully torque
> them. Is it possible they just need to be tightened down again?
>
> We're trying to get ready for the weekend so I need to decide whether
> to try to do this real quick.
>
> Thanks guys!
> Wes
>
> --
> Sent from my mobile device
