Rear bearing end play

[madkaw]

Confirming info I found on this and my methodology . I measured about .0065 pulling in and out on the rotor assembly . Book says .0057 max . We all know how hard it is to torque these . 
Would you torque an older assembly the same as installing a new one if it didn’t make spec ? 
Trying to find my fish scale to measure that spec. I do have the slightest vibration I can see in the mirror. I’m pretty sure I redid these when I did my Wildwoods and that was 20k miles .

 

[Patcon]

So 8/ 10,000ths

I can't think of what harm it would do to retorque, Steve

Can you or anyone else?

 

[madkaw]

I reached out to someone that has a Z shop, and he said it’s probably fine for a street car. If I was going to race the car , I should look at it . I’d have to wait until I got it on my lift to get enough leverage arm to move that nut anyways  . I don’t have a FSM - but my Hanes says 180-240lbs tolerances . Grunt !

[zspert]

What have you got to lose, rertorque.

[Captain Obvious]

In agreement with everyone else. I don't see any reason you couldn't retorque. I will, however, say that I would not a retorque to change anything. In theory, your inner races have been (and still are) clamped tightly against the distance piece between them. In order to change the end play, you would need to either move one of the outer races closer together (which you should not be able to do) or shorten the distance piece.

In theory, of course.  Who knows what will happen in real life when you put the black iron pipe and the breaker bar on it!  

[grannyknot]

7 hours ago, madkaw said:

Would you torque an older assembly the same as installing a new one if it didn’t make spec ? 

That's a good point though,  on an older assembly you will have to crack the nut CW to tighten it and that's not going to be easy. Me, I would crack it loose first and then re-torque.  180-240 lb.ft. that's a lot of spread on the tolerance, but as CO says you really shouldn't be able to change your reading.

How many miles on the bearings?

[zspert]

Excellent point Grannyknot. If the bearings have a million miles and are 100 years old the end play is trying to tell you something!

[Zed Head]

I've wondered if that spread between 180 and 240 wasn't the adjustment range.  It's actually a pretty wide spread, 1/3 higher from the low end. 

The FSM doesn't really say what to do if the turning torque or end play is off.  "Readjust".  ???

[zKars]

All the problems I have seen in stub axles has been related to worn/spun/bent/ovaled  bearing seats. And a few bent axles naturally and I guess a few snapped ones. As long as I can torque it properly and have the axle turn smoothly with some resistance, A micro amount of end play is far from a problem you need to worry about. IMHO

When I torque and then the axle spins but has tight spots as you spin it, just disassembling, cleaning seats AGAIN, and re-assembly usually results in a nice consistent rotation. Dem bearing have to seat “just so”

Edited August 1, 2020 by zKars

[AK260]

When I did mine earlier this year, I found it quite scary how much 240lbft is. However, once I solved my problem of the bearing grease seal not having quite gone home all the way, there was little difference with the fish scales between 200-240 and the “hot spots” zkars mentioned all disappeared. The fish scales went from 3.5kg at the lugs to 0.4kg (at 238lbft)!

 

 

As far as I can see, the inner flange, bearing inner races, the shaft and the spacer in the middle become one piece when torqued up, so any play should would typically result from the bearings themselves. Although I’m with patcon, it seems a awfully small amount of play to be worrying about.

 

[madkaw]

Thanks for the feedback guys . I think I’m going to run it and acquire all the bits to redo the rear bearings . Maybe a winter project .