daz1968

I have a little play on n/s front wheel bearing on 3dr, the bearing is however quiet on turning so has not collapsed, would this need replacing or just slackening and retightening. The cosworth manual gives little detail of these, only torque of 250 lb/ft which I have nothing to tighten to this amount, is it an easy job to change

Thanks
Darren

Hectori

job is quite easy to do. it doesn`t need much of technical knowledge. just basic stuff will do.

having a little play on bearing is NOT a fault. when you have much play, then it is a fault. when it makes noise, it must be renewed.

if there is a fault on bearing, it need to be removed. even if bearing could be tightened so that there is basicly no play, it will only help for a short time. so the smart move is to replace it rather than try to tighten it.

daz1968

Thanks for that, I got away with mot as not noisy, but will do this year, only problem is 250lb/ft tightening torque, I don't have a wrench that goes to that so will assemble it all and take hub to garage to get tightened, should be ok then

Darren

vyper developments

Hi Darren, just been reading about your front wheel bearing, this is quite common on the Sierra and as has been said a small amount of play is acceptable in regards to your MOT. I have the same situation on my own 2WD Saph the N/S/F bearing has been like this for at least 5 years and has never got any worse despite covering thousands of miles of hard driving. Whilst it is running quietly I would leave well alone.

CheeRS, Mike

Cossie92

Hello, I have following problem on 4wd Cossie. Trouble started when I had to change front wheel bearing after breaking it on disassembly. I got new wheel bearing (SKF IIRC) assembled and the hub/hub nut started to heat up while driving. It didn't make any noises, but after highway driving it heats up so that the hub nut is too hot to touch. When disassembling this, I noticed that the bearing inner face and the hub stub axle have been brushing against each other, both of them had scoring marks of friction/heat. Now I got new wheel bearing (Timken) changed to the upright, and also I changed new, used hub (the flanged shaft thing) and the bearing still keeps heating up. I even tightened the hub nut to 200 Nm as per repair manual. Any ideas, is the only option that the upright bearing housing is screwed?

Cossie92

I took the stub axle out again, and this time ordered the special tool 14-022 that Ford talks about in repair manual, this should drive the stub axle on the bearing properly before tightening the hub nut. So I did just that, but still, after installing stub axle with special tool, the stub axle comes very easily off the upright, even though IMO it should be pressed in decently hard even without the locknut! Clearly I can't get the stub axle to go all the way inside the upright, as the outer wheel bearing inner race needs to go all the way to stub axle, in order for the interference fit to work. I have couple of separate used uprights & stub axles, and with them, I can install the stub axle on the upright (without drive shaft tho) so that disconnecting the stub axle from that, requires decent use of force. However on my car, the stub axle comes off easily which tells me, it hasn't settled properly.

The wheel bearings & seals are quality items from well-known Cosworth specialist, so they should be OK. One thing I noticed still, is that the outer bearing inner race doesn't come out quite as far as they come in the separate uprights I have. This is due to the outer seal inner lip blocking the way. In the separate uprights, the bearing inner race can move more towards the outer edge of upright. Maybe this affects the installation? Has anyone had problem like this before? And also should the bearing inner races and stub axle be greased?



As you can see, the inner race of the bearings sits kind of behind the inner lip of the seal, it doesn't go ''over it''.

BIG LEE

what make a bearing did you buy for it? i only ask as i had nothing but bother with my sapphire 2wd getting bearings for local car shop had everything from qh to borg and beck none were right altho there were size when u went to do nut up there nipped up tight.. in end i got skf im sure make is worked a treat got the same for rear aswell

Cossie92

IIRC the one fitted right now is Timken. I've only ever bought SKF and Timken. My bet is that just for reason or another, I can't get the stub axle to mate correctly with the bearing inner race(s). Any tips are welcome.