Jmccreary

I am really upset right now. I spent the last week rebuilding the rear suspension on my '80. Everything was taken down to the frame, inspected, cleaned and replace if needed. I decided to buy a pair of control arm assemblies from a local Corvette shop. $700. I followed the assembly manual and every bolt was torqued to specs. Well I finished getting everything back together Wed. night and scheduled an appointment for alignment on Thurs. The alignment shop tells me that the rear bearings are toast. I told them there was no way since they were new and only had 10 miles on them. So we went out in the shop and sure enough the are loose as can be. I was just beside myself. I called the Corvette shop and told them what was going on. The are coming to pick the car up this morning. What could cause a brand new set of bearing to go bad like that? Any ideas. I can not wait to see what they say.

Also, I installed a front end rebuild kit from Eclkers 1 month ago. The alignment shop told me both lower ball joints were bad. Sure enough they are. Loose as can be. I have not driven the car 50 mile since those parts were installed. Just really agravated at this point. Junk parts!!!!

J

Tom454

"assemblies from a local Corvette shop. $700. "

So... you really have no idea of where the arms came from, or where they were rebuilt....
or IF they were rebuilt (not just cleaned/painted)

If they "looked" rebuilt (cleaned, painted etc), then someone dropped the ball up the food chain or tried to pull a fast one.

Even a mildly loose set of new bearings will not be "toast" after 50 miles.

Somebody screwed up big time.

There is no way you damaged those bearings simply by bolting the rebuilt arms in.

If they give you that line... don't buy it.



[Modified by Tom454, 9:06 AM 4/2/2004]

Van Steel

1) the assemblies were never rebuilt

2) they had no idea on how to rebuild them properly

3) should of gotten in on the t-arm GP

Jmccreary

I know where they came from. This Corvette shop is the largest in the area and seems to be a reputable shop. They only work on vettes. The trailing arm assemblies were sold as new rebuild units. New bushings, new bearings, new seals, new backing plate, new stainless parking brake kit and shoes. They looked new and they should have performed like new. When I purchased them I ask about the warrenty and was told they would be covered for one year, and that they have never had any come back. Somehow both of mine are bad.

How much play should be in the rear bearings. I can grab the tire at 12 and 6 o'clock and they tire moves back and forth at least 1/4 inch. Should they be tight where no play can be felt?

70BBvert

Where is the movement coming from? Could be the side yokes are worn or the c-clips damaged/broken causing the movement.

Jim

Jmccreary

When the tire is off the ground, move wheel back and forth at the 12 and 6 position, whole tire moves back and forth. When making the wheel move you can look at the hub where the half shaft attaches and see it move with the wheel movement. I am not familiar with how the internals of the wheel bearings are so I am not sure what the side yokes and c-clips are. It just seems clear that the bearings are really loose since you can see the movement on the hub.

NHvette

Loose bearings will move the same when rocked 12 to 6 and 3 to 9.
If it's just 12 to 6, then what Jim suggested applies. Maybe worn differential
yokes, loose strut rods, or bad Ujoints.
Best to have a helper shake the tire as you look underneath to see any movement.

EDIT - yup defintely sounds like the bearings are loose.
:seeya


[Modified by NHvette, 11:16 AM 4/2/2004]


[Modified by NHvette, 11:17 AM 4/2/2004]

Jmccreary

Actually 6 to 9, 12 to 6, all the same movement. When I was at the alignment shop they had the car up in the air and the tech moved the tire and you could clearly see the hub on the trailing are move around with the movement of the tire. No matter where you grab the tire it moves the same. I installed new u-joints (all 6), new strut rod bushings and bolts. new shocks, new brake lines, new calipers and pads. Basically replace the whole rear suspension.
I did not replace the yokes in the differentail because they seemed fine (not much movement). I do not see how the differential yokes could cause significant bearing play.

Solid LT1

We will cover this once again! 12-6=side yoke endplay, 9-3=wheel bearing freeplay. The allowable movement for the side yokes for me is around 1/4" and wheel bearings should not be more the about 1/16-3/32" (wer'e talking at the outer edge of the tire/wheel assembly.) I hope your local Corvette shop properly warrantees the assemblies for you, I do my own stuff because of horror stories like yours.

Jmccreary

When I picked up the trailing arm they had the earlier style hub. So they removed the hubs off the old and new units. I told them to leave the hubs off because I wanted to clean them before installing them. After cleaning the hubs I installed them and snugged the nut to probably 50ft pounds. They are telling me that they should have been torqued to 110 ft pounds. Could this be causeing the loose bearing issue? Does the hub nut keep the bearings together?

NHvette

No. The bearings should be firmly pressed on, unless someone reworked the
spindles for a slip fit. Eaither way 50 ftlbs versus 100 ftlbs should not have
destroyed your bearings. They were clearly rebuilt improperly.
If the shop doesn't seem to realize this, then they are just trying to cover their butt.

Good luck :seeya

GTR1999

If the bearing was not properly seated you could have the excessive end play you mention. I set press the bearigns on vs slip fit and set them up for .0015-.002" endplay. Then torque the spindle nut to a minimum of 100 ft/lbs plus additional force to line up the cotter pin hole. It should spin smooth without the problem you describe. If they sent you the arms with the bearings seated at 100 ft/lbs they would not back off if you remove the nut to paint the hub. You must torque the nut to the 100+ though. Usually a new nut is used in a rebuild too.

NHvette

I don't buy it Gary. Even with the nut only torqued to 50 ft lbs, 50 miles of
driving is not going to trash the bearings as he has described.
Well, that's my opinion anyway. I have never tested the theory.

70BBvert

Yes that nut gets torqued to 100 - 110 lbs and gets a cotter pin to ensure it doesn't back out. 50 # or 100 won't change how loose it is. The bearings get tightened against a spacer & shims that have to be sized to give the proper clearance.

Need to move the wheel & look to see where the movement is coming from. Not saying the trailing arms can't be bad, but there are lots of things to wear out that will cause similar symptoms in the rear end.

Good Luck

Jim

Jmccreary

So you guys are saying that the light torque on the hub bolt would not cause the bearings to become really loose? And that is sould like the bearings were not set up right in the first place?

What gets me is that I called 1 day before picking up the trailing arms and paid for them on the phone ahead of time. The trailing arms should have had the correct hub for a 1980 installed before I even got there. They should have at least told me to make sure to torque the nut to 100 if it is that essential

70BBvert

I don't have enough experience to say one way or the other. Did you install a cotter pin to keep the nuts from backing off? If so I can't see it making a difference after only 50 miles.

Jim

Jmccreary

Yes the cotter pins were installed. Maybe Van Steel can chime in here and give an opinion.

GTR1999

Hi Dave, Well my thought was that inner bearing might not have been completely installed either by a press or by using one of those funky installation tools. If that was the case then the shim/spacer wouldn't be up against the inner bearing races and they would be loose. Granted this is not how they should be left and it is all speculation because I don't have the spindles here to disassemble. I do know that new bearings and when the original spacer/shim is used they tend to be loose,about .010-.020" end-play.

So maybe the shop replaced the bearings but didn't fit the shims to cut down on the end play? Who knows,but driving 50 miles on loose bearings could very well wreck them.

If you were near me I'd take a look at them for you. What about a club in the area? I would be weary of the shop you used for any future work.

Gary


[Modified by gtr1999, 5:21 PM 4/2/2004]

VetteNut72

Did you use your old half-shaft flanges(edit: not the flange, but what it bolts to) or were they supplied with the t-arm assemblies?

If the flange that bolts to the spindle is worn on the shim side, then even with the nut tightened properly, the excess play between the flange and the shim, along with 50 miles of driving could very well have worked the bearing out of place. Check your flanges and make sure they are ok.

These Things


Craig





[Modified by VetteNut72, 4:09 PM 4/2/2004]

Tom454

The flange that connects to the spindle is "splined", and slides onto the spindle... it does not spin relative to the spindle etc..... so this is not a "high wear" point.

When the nut is torqued, the nut, cotter pin, washer, flange, inner bearing inner race, shim, spacer, outer bearing inner race, and the spindle all rotate as a unit, together.

FYI

Tom