My FD's right side has been making a bearing noise for a while. Jacking up the car and rocking the wheels I found the front to be tight, but the rear had some play. I removed the rear wheel and found that the toe link heim joint was somewhat worn, so perhaps that was were the play was coming from. Regardless, I removed the rear spindle, pressed out the old hub and bearing, and pressed in a new bearing and new hub. However, with the spindle still removed from the car, there is a small amount of play between the new bearing and the spindle (not between the hub and bearing).

Does this indicate my spindle is bad? I've also heard that a little play is normal until the axle nut is torqued down.

 

My mechanic friend said it's fucked

 

possible causes in rank order of probability
1. bad bearing
2. bad hub or damaged during pressing of the bearing
3. spindle aka upright

 

As mentioned above, it's the outside of the bearing against the spindle where the play is. So it must be the spindle that is bad.

How badly do you have to **** up pressing the bearing out/in to **** up the spindle? I won't claim that by rig was perfectly level, but it was close and went out/in smoothly.

 

I've only done it once but it is rather easy to **** up. Mine didn't work out for reasons that I forget and I had to get another one.