Evening all,

I've just replaced the front wheel bearings in the Fiesta (Mk2 xr2) uprights I will be using on the rear of my car, and I have encountered a bit of an issue! It might not be though, so I am hoping someone can put me right.

Basically, the bearings have been fully inserted into cleaned uprights (using a hydraulic press). I've assembled the hub into the bearings too, but not put the CV joint in/ tightened up the hub nuts).

Now when I fit the brake discs to test the caliper bracket alignment (sierra calipers on a standard fiesta solid disc) I noticed that there is about 0.5-1mm play in the bearings. That is if you grip the brake disc at 9 and 3 o'clock, you can wobble the disc by that amount.

What I am wondering is if this is caused by the wheel bearings not being preloaded because the cv joint hasent been bolted in place. Does torquing up the hub nuts preload the bearings to remove this play?

I've not got the Haynes book of lies for a fiesta to check this, so does anyone know?

Cheers
Andy

The bearings need to be loaded by the driveshaft outer joint.

At work we wrecked a set of bearings by just pushing a car around the site with the driveshafts removed.

I should think tightening them up will have considerable effect.

past experiance has proven that the difference between bearings on and bearings tight can be quite a lot. This is presuming the fiesta bering is no dismatlable bearing, rather than escort/cortina ones that come apart, which definantly need to be tightened up.

I've known audi bearings that I thought where worn before I put them on and fully tightened up.

[Edited on 27/2/05 by clbarclay]

I thought that it might have an effect! I didn't think that you could wreck the bearings just by removing the driveshafts, and pushing the car round thought

I'll have to remember to put the outer cv joints in before putting the car on its wheels then.

Cheers!

Ps. anyone know the correct hubnut torque for a MK2 fiesta Xr2?

Not sure of exact figure but it comes under the heading Fing tight. Sierra hub nuts require 310 to 350 Nm, which is more than any 1/2" drive torque rench will go up to (not the same typre of bearing, but i dought its too far off).

Putting the shafts in will sort this.. Ive had that prob with a few vehicles..