I noticed yesterday when I was rolling my '79 Pontiac Catalina down to the flat spot on my driveway that I was hearing a little bit of a clunk kind of noise in the front end. The best I can describe it, is sounding like that tink that you hear when you run over a manhole cover. It started when the car moved, then stopped until it rolled again.
I jacked up the front end and tugged at the wheels. No play. I gave them a spin, and the noise happened just as the wheel starts to turn and they would do it when you change the direction of rotation.
I followed the adjustment procedure as written in GM's service manual, and the driver's side stopped making the noise. The passenger side still made the noise, unless I left the axle nut around finger tight. I left it at that and stuck the new cotter pin in, as the next hole in the castle nut was too loose.
Is this an indication of a worn bearing in need of replacement already? I hear nothing driving that would indicate a bad bearing (roaring, etc.) There's plenty of grease in the hub.
If adjusted properly per the shop manual that bearing is likely worn or defective, possibly not greased properly.
The way I learned to adjust front wheel tapered roller bearings back in the day was to tighten the retaining nut to seat the bearings, then back off the nut and tighten with fingers so that there is just the smallest amount of play, then put in the cotter pin as close to that position as possible. (Shop manual for my '71 Ambassador says to tighten the nut to 20 foot pounds, back off on it, then tighten to 12 inch pounds which probably does about the same thing.)
Could be defective. When I had the rotors and hubs off last year, I just replaced the bearings in both, then the driver's side bearings got stuck on the spindle. I had to destroy the ring that holds the rollers together to get them off. I put the originals back in that one, instead of buying another set. The passenger side has Made in Taiwan bearings, the driver's side still has the original American-made bearings.
My brother and I didn't have the service manual at the time, we more or less guessed how tight to put them on and backed them off to where the wheels could spin freely with no play. We could have possibly damaged the passenger side bearings I suppose. I'll pull that one off tomorrow and have a look.
Did you replace the bearing races inside the hub as well as the bearings themselves? Thoroughly grease the bearings with a good high-temperature wheel bearing grease?
Timken or SKF bearings are usually best if available. Taiwanese parts are generally better than those made in mainland China but they can be sketchy as well. Finding good quality replacement parts can be a real challenge these days. As you found out with your master cylinder even the "OEM" stuff is not what it used to be.
Yep, replaced the ring retainer they ride in, along with the rotor/hub assembly itself. I packed the bearings by hand with autozone wheel bearing grease out of a pack and put extra in the back of the assembly. It wasn't a greasy mess in there like it was originally. How packed full of grease is that supposed to be? It was pretty much full when I tore it apart.
The wheel bearings were AutoZone branded.
I figured the races were replaced, just wanted to touch all bases. The bearings need to be heavily packed with grease so it's squeezing out between the rollers and the cage. I have a bearing packer to do that but it's not tough to do by hand.
Are you supposed to hear the bearings when you spin the wheel by hand? I could slightly hear the bearings rolling in the races, if that indicates anything.
I may tear it apart tomorrow and do a more accurate job now that I have the manual.
I don't recall ever hearing bearing noise when spinning the wheel by hand, at least not over the little bit of noise made by the slight drag from the brake pads or shoes.
That could have been what I was hearing, I suppose. Kind of a dragging noise? The tires spun and slowed down at a rate I'd expect them to. Other than that odd sound, there wasn't any real indication of an issue.
Yes, there's always going to be a slight amount of drag from the pads or shoes. (On drum brakes that's the proper adjustment.) Some calipers are designed to retract the pads a bit when the brake pedal is released but there's still a light contact.