BOBSS396 wrote:

I've been doing them my way and the old timers at the time showed me what they do. In fact one shop, they had all of us doing it the same way to avoid comebacks & catastrophic bearing failures.

You and I have basically the same technique, we just describe it a little differently. I retired as a master mechanic in 1999 after 28 years... we should have it figured out by now, eh?

Spindle nuts require a bit of 'feel' developed after doing it a few thousand times, but anyone who can turn a wrench should be able to get it right if they follow this simple procedure:

First tighten the nut until the rotor has some resistance when you try to spin it; this seats the bearings. Then back off and retighten slowly until you just barely feel the resistance on the rotor again, then back off just enough to align the cotter pin.
The rotor should spin freely, yet there should be no discernable play in the bearings. Remember it will loosen up a little after driving it a few hundred miles because the bearings expand and contract through a few heat cycles, but they should remain within tolerance.
 

Still struggling with the spindle nuts. I tried tightening the spindle nut until resistance felt while spinning the rotor. Used channel lock pliers and I couldn't get resistance on the rotors. I tightened the nuts down as much as I could and could spin the rotor no problem? So I backed the nuts off slightly, put everything back together and went for a drive. I could here a slight clicking noise from the front end every tire rotation. Figured I over tightened the nut so back to the garage. Took everything apart again to inspect bearings and races. No damage, all looked good. To be sure, I took a rotor and bearings to my buddies machine shop for inspection. They confirmed some normal wear present, otherwise good shape. Now I am stumped. This is not my first time seating and adjusting bearings. I have even adjusted axle bearings on full floater rear axles with no issue.
I did notice that the cotter pin I used is too small and doesn't seat the locking washer onto the spindle nut snug enough and the gaps between the teeth on the spindle nut locking washer look slightly enlarged. So, this allows the spindle nut to back off a little. I will replace the cotter pins and locking washer next. If that doesn't correct the issue, new bearings and races next. Am I missing something here?

Last edited by dan_6776 (August 3, 2016 1:05 pm)

I removed all grease at inspection to check for damage and the machine shop also confirmed good bearings and races. What has me stumped is why I can't over tightened the bearings so that the rotors turn with resistance. If I got resistance then that would confirm the bearings seated, then it is just a matter of backing off the nut until the rotor spins freely. The bearings must be hitting up against shoulders on the spindle to prevent them from tightening up enough to to cause drag on the rotors. I got all the components from the same donor which is why I assume the parts to be correct.

JWSpeed wrote:

 Check the threads on the spindle to be sure the nut will screw all the way on.

This ^^^ is what came to my mind as well. Make sure there are enough threads on the spindle so that the nut isn't running out of thread before it can tighten the bearings. If the nut is bottoming out on the threads, perhaps the washer needs to be thicker, the hole in the washer is too small, or it is the wrong type of nut.

Also make sure the inside races on both inner and outer bearings aren't too small for the spindle, preventing the bearings from sliding all the way onto the spindle shaft. If this is the case then they are the wrong bearings for the spindle.
Just because they all came from the donor car together doesn't mean they couldn't still be mismatched. Something is preventing the bearings from tightening as they should, so something ain't right. Consider all possibilities no matter how unlikely.  
 

Last edited by Boogyman (August 4, 2016 5:50 am)

In 28 years wrenching for a living, I don't recall ever seeing a front rotor/bearing design that you couldn't tighten enough to cause resistance. Of course there might be something new I haven't seen since I retired in the late 90's, but we are talking about regular old Fords here.

When you say there is 'enough threads on the spindle to tighten the nut as tight as I can get it', how do you know for sure since you can't see inside the rotor? Is there any in/out play on the rotor when it is 'as tight as I can get it'? It must be hanging up or bottoming out on something if you can't get resistance when spinning the rotor.

Puzzling. Makes me want to take a trip to your place.