ok...i will try to explain this as best i can.......it goes like this....

i tore my calipers, rotors, and such off the front of my 83' leaving just the spindle.
i took out the bearings from both rotors and in a moment i realize to be most likely stupid...i mixed up which bearings go on what sides....(i dont think it matters...right?)....but anyways...it gets worse. i find that between the two rotors are four bearings........but in 3 different sizes!!! both sides had a large bearing that goes to the thick part of the spindle. meanwhile.... one side had a small bearing that was around an inch or so in diameter and the other side thats like a half inch larger. im so confused....am i missing something??? this is the first time i ever fucked with FB bearings....anyone know what might be the issue or is this normal?


CLIFF NOTES:

1 disassembled front rotors and removed all bearings ( dont know which bearings go on which side)

2 between the two rotors there are four bearing sets with races......but there are
(3) three different size bearings ( two large, one medium, one small)

3 is this right or did someone put the wrong bearing in there

4 HELP!!!!

 

Sounds to me like you have one early style front spindle and one late style spindle. In 83 i believe they switched from what is considered the small bearing spindles to the big bearing spindles. This size difference concerns the outter bearing, which in both cases should be smaller than the inner bearing. So, from the sounds of things, someone at some point switched out one of the strut assemblies with the spindle to a early style one.

 

Yeah sounds like someone replaced one of the existing bearings with a different one that was not right. If I were you I would bite the bullet and make a trip to autozone and spend $60 on all new bearings. They will come with new races(sleeve that makes them fit) too.

 

i cleaned the bearings in a cleaner and inspected them... they are all ok, well atleast as ok as they should be. if there are two different spindles, then i would just have to figure out which side has the smaller bearing right? would this **** up rotors? i have one that came with the car, still need to get another, are rotors different?

 

The rotors are different and if you look at them it will obvious because the rotor for the later spindle will have a bigger outter bearing race.

The inner bearings, races and seals are the same. The outter bearings and races are different and the good news is that you can't put the car together with the wrong parts on the wrong side. For example the small outer bearing from the early spindle will not fit on the late spindle. Also the sindle nuts are different too.

Move slowly and don't force anything - you really can't screw this up.

 

i was looking at everything closer today and everything is pretty clear. i will have to be careful like mentioned. i wonder how i would order the opposing rotor then? i guess by trial and error or something. lol.

thanks for the advice and learning experience guys. il post if i find anything else

 

Hey, maybe you've found THE 82.5 car! They ran out of small bearing spindles, used their last one, took a smoke break, and carried on with the new stuff.

Send it to a museum.

 

For the small spindle order a 1982 rotor and for the large spindle order a 1984/85
12A rotor

I like it - ya got a 83.5 model year car built on a Friday by a line worker drunk on sak'e

 

Thats funny!




On a serious note, or maybe not.......

You should put the strut housing with the larger outer bearing on the outside front that gets loaded the most.

So if you make more right hand turns put it on the left.


-billy