Alright so I've searched and searched for about an hour without any luck.
I recently replaced the front wheel bearings on my 88 fc. About a month later they were loose again so I figured they just had to be broken in and re-tightened. Did that. Its been about 2 months since and this morning I was backing out of the driveway and it felt like my lugs were loose so I immediately checked them, nothing there. When i got to work I put my car on the lift and checked the front wheels. Sure enough the bearings were very loose again. The spindle nut and cotter pin haven't moved at all. I was wondering if this is just another quirky fc thing or it means I'm going to have to drop a sh*t ton of money into it.. again...

 

1. What bearings did you get?

2. How did they compare to the bearings you took out?

3. What'd you torque the spindle nut to?

4. How much grease did you use?

 

1. I got a whole set of timkin bearings. Thats what Ive always used in all my cars with good results.
2. The bearings that came out werent in terrible shape. The grease in the hub was burnt and sticky so Im guessing it had been a good while since they were last replaced (if ever).
3. I torqued the nut to 20 ft-lbs as per the FSM. Even went as far as to get a scale to measure the frictional force to .5 kg. Whenever it comes to specs I dont leave anything to chance.
4. I used a decent amound since I completely cleaned out the hub and spindle. And used a good amount in the bearing packer.

I followed procedure to a tee and STILL after a couple months the wheel play comes back.

 

Okay, second batch...

1. Did you compare the timkins to the bearings you took off, in terms of size/diameter? That's what I was asking. I know the ones that I ordered were narrower than the ones I took off, so I ended up sending them back.

2. Have you taken the bearings off after this happens? How do they look? Fried? Crunched? Completely shiny and new?

3. How did the hub and spindle look? They could be the culprits here.

 

1. My bad on the misunderstanding haha. The ones I put on were identical to the ones i took off. Since I'm overly obsessed about it I went as far as to mic the inside diameter of the bearings. The new ones went on with no grief. Just a little snug but nothing I would worry about.

2. I took them off to have a look after the second time they started to loosen expecting to find crunched races and little ***** floating around but they looked brand new. The only thing I noticed is that the spindle nut was a tad loose but the cotter pin and retainer were in the same spot. I assume the bearing just settled somewhat? I drive the car quite hard and where I live its all twisty backroads. Imagine Deals Gap just less severe.

3. The hub and spindle look fine. No scaring or wear or anything like that.

 

How do your control arm bushings look?

 

They look fairly decent. I think I may have found the problem. Horribly bad struts... I figure theres enough play in them side to side to put enough pressure on the wheel bearings to cause play after a while. Ordered some megan coilovers and they should be here next week some time. Guess I'll take the downtime to do some winter time maintenance. Thanks for the help man!