wheel bearings

[bikehandle]

Hi all.
Can anyone tell me the proper setting for tightening the wheel bearings on the festiva? My manuals are very vague on this.
Thanks!!
Bikehandle

[Pgh5spd]

Rear bearings: pretty much like with any similar drum bearings = by feel. If you haven't tightened enough, there will be play in the wheel once you put it back on. Grab hold of the wheel and shake after you've put it back together. If you feel play, tighten the nut a bit. (So, if you have the early-style nuts without cotter pin, wait to stake them until you're happy with the setting.) What you don't want to do is crank it too tight, which will lead to premature bearing failure. Another way to approach it if you're new to this sort of thing is to tighten the nut just to the point that there's now play left in the wheel. I tiny bit of play is better than too tight.

Front bearings: if you're changing bearings, you need to have the bearings preloaded, which essentially means determining the right width spacer ring you need to keep your bearings just at the proper distance from each other so that there's no play, and they're not too tight either. I try not to change front bearings, and the one time when I did, when I was blissfully ignorant of the possibility that the new bearings might be slightly fatter overall, and thus the spacer wouldn't be thick enough to keep them properly at bay, I guess I wound up with bearings with the same tolerances as OEM, and all was fine. But many have experienced front bearing failure for either not having them set up properly, or by going to someone who didn't follow the procedure and also lost the spacer ring which almost unavoidably leads to overtightened bearings.

Despite what some people will tell you, you don't have to replace your front bearings when you knock the knuckle apart to change rotors. I have cleaned the outer bearing while still on the hub and repacked many times with no problems, as long as the bearing looks OK visually, of course. The inner one you can lift out and clean after removing the inner seal. Doing it this way, you don't need to have the assembly pre-loaded since you're using the same bearings that are already matched to the spacer.

John

[bikehandle]

Thanks for the info!! It was the preload thing I did not understand.
Bikehandle

[gdawgs]

I replaced a set of fronts a few years back. When I tightened the axle nut, I could barely turn the wheel, meaning too much preload torque which requires a thicker spacer. Unfortunately, you can't buy the spacers anywhere(not that I could find anyway). When I went to the Ford dealer and asked them about the spacers, they just gave me a dumb look, like they had never heard of this before.

I ended up making some shims, which worked fine.

[bikehandle]

So let me get this straight. the front axel nut is supposed to be how tight? and the rotor is going to spin freely?

[gdawgs]

Front Axle nut = 116-174 Ft*lb ( not sure why they used such goofy numbers, why not 115-175?)

I can't find the bearing preload specs in my Haynes manual. I know it's in the Chilton manual that my dad has.

[FB71]

because it was engineered in metric, so the torque specs were in Newton meters and converted to Pound feet.

[gdawgs]

Oh yes, I should have been able to figure that out. Duh.

[FB71]

we're all bone heads on occasion! especially me!

[gomer]

Front Axle nut = 116-174 Ft*lb ( not sure why they used such goofy numbers, why not 115-175?)

I can't find the bearing preload specs in my Haynes manual. I know it's in the Chilton manual that my dad has.

Those numbers are conversions from "newton meters" which is what the factory manuals would be referring to ,, this sort of thing is common on most foreign built cars.

[VaderSS]

Still goofy numbers...

116 Lb-Ft = 157 N-M
174 Lb-Ft = 236 N-M

[VaderSS]

Still goofy numbers...

116 Lb-Ft = 157 N-M
174 Lb-Ft = 236 N-M

[HappyMom]

116 Lb-Ft = 157 N-M = 16 kgF-M
174 Lb-Ft = 236 N-M = 24 kgF-M

[FB71]

116lb-ft = 1,572,748,824.3200001 dyne centimeters = 16.0375748 kilopond meters

174lb-ft = 2,359,123,236.48 dyne centimeters = 24.0563621 kilopond meters

[gdawgs]

Oh yeah?! Well if my calculations are correct, 60 miles/hour = 161,280 furlongs/fortnight

Not that it has anything to do with torque.