When I wiggle the front wheel for my 87 NA side to side (3 and 9) everything looks tight. When I wiggle the wheel top to bottom (Midnight and noon), it makes a clicking noise but barely moves. How can I tell if the hub or ball joint is bad? What’s the best way to test the ball joint itself?

 

hub doesn't go bad, ball joints, wheel bearins, and tie rods do

 

Thanks. I guess my more familiar with doing this on my other car which requires the whole assembly to be replaced. Should I just replace both bearings and the ball joint while I’m there? The tie rods seem to be ok (ie no side to side movement).

 

well technically your supposed to replace the whole hub when the bearings go bad but it they can easily be replaced you just have to take a file a grind down alittle race to push the old bearings out. i'd replace the ball joints first and see if that helps, no sense in doing that much work for nothing,

 

try and rip the wheel off of the car and see if it moves alot.

Edit: NVM I misread that, check your strut bearings too, that could be it.