My book says tighten the nut to 36fp, then back off, tighten to 12 and stick the key in. Only I'm not sure if that's for ball or needle, the book is 5 years newer than my car. Been years but I ran them looser, like finger tight. What's consensus?
New or used bearings, packed with new grease. I cranks the nut down tight and spin them a few times. then back off loose spin against few times . then go snug , just a bit of resistance on the bearing , then go loose to get the cotter pin in. I don’t like any play in the bearing, but I tend to go loose on them also.
From the 1938 Chevrolet service manual- http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1938/38csm074.html Seems I was taught at some point- some preload on ball bearings, small amount of endplay with rollers.
I run my bearings on the tight side as is, roller or ball. With the roller you can get away with being a bit looser since you have a greater surface area for the weight. With a ball bearing there is only one point of contact. The ball will be fine, it's the races that can get damaged or chewed up if it is loose. On the '54(ball bearings) IIRC the preload is ~30-35lbft and only adjust the nut less than a 'flat'(60°) to get the cotter pin installed. I do as VANDENPLAS does but I re-torque and try and keep it tighter than 'finger tight' with ball bearings.
Wheel bearing adjustment is a big topic in the heavy truck world. Tapered roller bearings actually like to have a certain amount of pre-load for the longest life. The problem is there is no good way to accurately measure pre-load. Heavy truck bearings are adjusted for 0.001-0.005 end play since that can be easily measured with a dial indicator.
Got 'er done per the manual above, but feel free to carry on. They were loose, could wiggle both wheels. Embarking on a little road trip tomorrow, one less thing to worry about. Thanks!
Think about pinion and carrier bearings.... They use quite a bit of preload. Why would you adjust wheel bearings with little or no load on them? Putting preload spreads the load to all of the rollers equally. Cuts down on loading just a couple of rollers when the weight of the vehicle is added. They are designed to be preloaded.
Squirrel is right again. Ball type Wheel bearings on a vehicle are different than most bearings we encounter. They are angular contact bearings intended to encounter and resist loads in all directions. Most other ball bearing applications do not encounter end loading and do not need preload. Like in an alternator or water pump. In general ball bearings in wheel usage require preload while tapered roller need minute free play. At least in my experience and manuals. a
I guess the engineers who designed the cars, and wrote the service manuals, don't understand how they work
All good info above, for future ref, this is a great site; https://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/index.htm
I remember a thread a number of months back that said he was in a Motorcycle accident, hope he is ok https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/blowby.1284109/
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