Hi

i have mounted new stubaxles and Timken bearings. Greased them well with correct Shell grease (don’t remember exact type now).
I tightened them as much as what felt right and loosened the nut a bit. Drove 100 miles and had some vibration at 90-100 mph.
I readjusted the bearings, LH would take a little more, RH more than LH.
Now I could fell some knocking, but it stopped after a while, and then I was ready to start a proper road trip.

400 miles done, and I get same kind of knocking at the test drive after each stop. This goes away after maybe 10 miles, and that must be due to temperatures in the hub. I feel quite sure I need to tighten the nuts more due to grease layers becoming thinner after driving some miles.

I have just parked the car for the night outside a hotel, and there will not be any checking of play until tomorrow morning. I just wanted to hear your input on how to adjust these bearings properly. Our trip goes to England, so if I end up damaging the bearings I expect to just have them changed there again...

 

I take 'em right down to zero....an not an iota more. Always works for me.

Cheers
DD

 

The difficult part is to define zero...

 

It's helpful to devise a way to lever the hub a bit. I use a big screwdriver inserted into one of the cooling vanes of the brake disc.

Loosen the nut so that obvious free play can be felt

Begin running down your nut while simultaneously gently levering the disc; you'll feel the free play being reduced, As you get towards zero play tighten the nut in very tiny increments

When you get to zero free play, stop.

If you overshoot, start over. If any doubt, start over. Sometimes I'll do this 2-3 times until the feel is exactly what I want. Only takes a few moments.

Cheers
DD

 

Hi Leo,

I find it difficult to judge the free play unless I have the wheel in place.

Having taken off bearing dust cover and split pin I push centre cap out of wheel, re-fit the wheel and then tighten up the bearing nut with a socket whilst testing for spin resistance and free play at the wheel edge. I keep tightening until there is just a whisker (sorry can't be more precise than that!) of free play. When happy, remove wheel and fit split pin / bearing dust cover / wheel centre cap.

Without the wheel in place I thought I had removed most of the free play but when I fitted wheel there was still play evident..

Hope it works,

Cheers,
LeeP

 

Leo
What I do is to tighten the nut good and hard. This sets the bearings in place. Then I back it off and gradually tighten the nut again until it seems about there, with no excessive torque applied. Then I spin it and see if it spins evenly with no bind at all. If it does, I tighten 5 minutes worth or angle and retry. If it does not I back off 5 mins. After a couple or so goes it is obvious where the correct, no-play, no-bind spot is.

 

Mine is for sure not that tight. I had an idea they needed to have some play not to seize ?

I checked both and tightened LH by 1/12 turn this morning. It for sure helped, but I still have some knocking from cold. I will give both a bit more tomorrow morning.
The original jack is by the way surprisingly good ! I used 20-25 minutes to do both this morning at the hotel parking. We have done another 500 miles today, and the XJ-S is doing well ! Good fun to do the long rolling hills in Normandy with 140 km/h down and up again.

Leo

 

Well, I tightened up the bearings a bit more, and there are for sure no slack to be felt. Wheels are spinning freely though.

I still get knocking when going over sharp holes. We have done another 4-500 miles, and this morning I then decided to lift the wheels off the ground and really pull the wheels to feel if I’m just too gentle. No movement or noises even when I’m kicking the tyres, and still I get knocks (and vibration above 130 km/h)
Can stub axles have wrong diameter for the bearings ? They are after all aftermarket items, but from Barrett and not just the cheapest from eBay...
Can other joints in the steering/front axle assembly cause this?
Lower ball joints are new, the rest is reused and looked ok (and didn’t knock before disassembly). My steering column guide/bearing in the cabin has some play, I can move it maybe 3-5mm up/down and make a similar noise, but that is not a new issue.

 

I suggest you take your hub completely off and inspect the lower surface of your stub axle. More than likely it will have a wear point at inner bearing race position. Barely noticeable but it will make a big difference on the road and without a new stub axle you will not adjust 12/6 oclock movement out of wheel.

 

Oh, I forgot. Yesterday just before arriving I braked lightly over something that would normally cause knocking. The result was no knocks, so I guess that must put the focus back on the hub/bearing/stub-axle. I will of cause try to repeat that when going for a small drive to Gaydon and Stratford on Avon today.

 

They are new. Or at least they were new, when we left home some 1500 miles ago, and the knock has been there from after maybe 100 miles.
I suspect they are machined with wrong dimensions. Being on vacation with GT theme it will be annoying to spend days at a garage to fix this, but at some point I will have to do it...

 

Hi Leo,

Totally unrelated to the thread but if you are in the West Midlands I suggest a visit to Coventry Transport Museum. Great selection of cars etc. and lots of Jag stuff. It use to be free as well.

Enjoy your holiday and good luck with the wheel bearings.

Cheers,
LeeP

 

Leo
I doubt the new stub axles are machined incorrectly. I am a bit lost now, is the knock still there or not?

 

Might be time to move off of wheel bearings and look elsewhere

If the lower shocks bolts are not tight...really, really tight....you'll get a knocking sound. Upper shock bushings will fall apart, giving a knock. The diagonal braces in the engine bay will knock if not fully tightened. Loose calipers can make a knocking sound...worth a look since you say braking eliminates the knock. But, braking changes the loading of the entire front suspension so anything can be affected, potentially.

Cheers
DD

 

I still have some knock. It could actually ‘just’ be steering column knocking around in slack bushings, but it didn’t do it before this rebuild.
The lower shock bolts are not tightened ridiculously much. That could actually very well be my source of knock. Top rubbers are new.
Applying brake might reduce the knocking, but does not cancel it completely.
My high speed vibration could just be wheels out of balance, need to have that checked.

Lower shock bolt is my next thing to focus on, but things are not as bad as in the beginning. Roads are pretty bad around here...

For the Coventry transport museum: We visited that 3 years ago. I had a quick walk through the Gaydon museum today.

 

Check wishbone bushings. If knocking in steering column you would feel it in steering wheel.

 

All new original/oem. Nuts are tight, and I believe it’s assembled correctly

 

LH lower shock bolt was not tight. Thanks Doug !
I steel brushed and painted all parts before reassembly, so this was one of the places where I should have taken care to remove paint before before joining parts again.
it has definitely helped, and it’s my feeling things are now ok, maybe except a wheel imbalance