so i was changing my front seal and im pretty sure my bearings dropped during the whole thing, i had the clutch held in the whole time. but now the hub wont move as easily and their is no play when i rock it back and forth. so im pretty sure iam going to have to re align the bearings. my question is tho do i have to buy new ones or just put the old ones back in the right position i haven't turned the car on so they should be fine right? and when i take it apart am I going to new any new o-rings for anything in the front cover?? i know i need the oil pan gasket and front cover gasket just making sure their wasn't anything eles i don't wanna have to go back again. its a na rx7 1987

 

if hub was tightened you crushed them if they dropped

 

^^^ this

 

if the bearing did drop and you tightened the e-shaft bolt, the bearing will be crushed and unusable. it will need to be replaced.

you will need the oil pan gasket, front cover gasket and it would also be a good idea to replace the o-ring behind the front cover while you're in there.

Read this: http://mazdatrix.com/faq/oring.htm

 

endplay isnt as noticeable as you think....get a dial indicator and base, test it and report back before you continue....

 

Ya i read that mazdatrix that the play was like .0015- something. i actually don't think it fell anymore reading that it does move barley tho, and what are the chances of it falling when the clutch was held down the whole time?

 

The easiest way to tell if a bearing has dropped is to pop on the front hub, snug up the bolt, install the front pulley and then compare the distance to the water pump pulley. If it looks like this, you have a problem:



0.0015 doesn't sound like a lot though. I think that's at the low end of the spec, and if you were prying too hard, it is easy to create that end play by flexing the bearing plate.

 

This is what i got

 

Aaron's post is right on the money and your pic looks OK to me, but I would check the end play to be sure. You do NOT want to run the motor with the bearings dropped. You should be able to rent a dial indicator and base.

 

That really helped my Aaron, thanks! Without that pic, I would have just put it back together. For the life of me, I could not figure out what they meant with the hub protrusion measurements. So this was alot easier.

Just as a pointer to whoever does this job, and you may figure this out yourself. Anyway. Instead of installing the front cover and tightening it all up, than checking the hub protrusion. Just put the hub on without the front cover on, and set the water pump on its studs. Make sure everything is flush, and put the pulley on.

I made the above mistake by putting on the front cover, than checking the hub. I had to take it all off and restart. Along with taking apart the eccentric parts to set the bearing back in properly. That was a long story. Basically I checked the hub by eye, with aaron cake's method, looked fine. But the way i'm, wanted to make sure it was okay and made the mistake of pushing the parts back, without taking off the chain. Well the bearing slipped on me, didn't know it, and assembled the front cover. Luckily just before I was about to install the oil pan, I thought I would check the hub. It looked the same as aaron's picture.