Front left wheel has play, but it's not the tie rod or ball joint

MustangLX-5.0 said:

Drivers front wheel has a little clunk noise when I pull in and out on it. It make s the noise from front and rear + top and bottom wiggle. Is there something wrong with the wheel bearing? I've got all new rotors, brakes, bearings on it. I followed the procedure for tightening the bearing, then backing the nut off just a pinch so it is a little more than finger loose. Did I not seat the bearing right?

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The technical way to do wheel bearings from ford..

If the wheel is excessively loose on the spindle or does not rotate freely, adjust front wheel bearings as follows:

1. Raise vehicle on a hoist until tire clears the floor. Refer to «Section 00-02».

2. Remove wheelcover. Remove grease cap from hub.

3. Wipe excess grease from the end of the spindle. Remove the cotter pin and nut retainer. Discard cotter pin.

4. Loosen adjusting nut three turns. Rock wheel, hub, and rotor assembly in and out several times to push the shoe and linings away from the rotor.

5. While rotating the wheel, hub, and rotor assembly in a counterclockwise direction, tighten the adjusting nut to 23-34 N-m (17-25 lb-ft) to seat the bearings.

6. Loosen the adjusting nut one-half turn, then retighten to 1.1-3.2 N-m (10-28 lb-in), using an in-lb torque wrench.

7. Place the nut retainer on the adjusting nut, so the castellations on the retainer are in-line with the cotter pin hole in the spindle.

8. Install a new cotter pin, and bend the ends around the castellated flange of the nut retainer.

9. check front wheel rotation. If the wheel rotates properly, install the grease cap and wheelcover. If rotation is noisy or rough, follow procedures outlined under Replacement and Lubrication.

10. Before driving the vehicle, pump the brake pedal several times to restore normal brake pedal travel.

Now this is how I do it. 1st I use high temp synthetic grease like mobil 1 or valvoline. pack the wheel bearings on the palm of my hand and force the grease right in. Install a new grease seal after applying a coat of grease to the bearing race an installing the back bearing. do the same for the front then I tighten the nut while spinning the rotor to 24ft-lbs back it off then tighten it finger tight. when I put the cage back on I only turn the cage until I can get the cotter pin on, I leave the nut alone.

If it still feels loose doing this ( it does sometimes ) 2nd method tighten until the rotor is hard to turn..note hard to turn not stopped by the tightning the nut so tight then back it off 1 flat.


not spinning the rotor while tightning will give a false tight feel. spinning the rotor while tightning seats the rotor, chances are it's not fully seated and it is loose or you have the wrong bearings, worn spindle. more than likely needs to retightened.

Mine did that,but both wheels.My strut mounts were shot.