Hope somebody's online right now that might help solve this issue.

I recently replaced my front brake drums and did a brake job.

In the process, I inspected the front wheel bearings closely, and determined they are fine after seeing no scoring, no obvious wear, or metal flakes between the rollers, once everything was cleaned of old grease. I re-packed them with new grease as best I could and re-installed the drums

Things have been peachy thus far, but was driving on the fwy just a couple days ago and at about 65 mph, I felt and vaguely heard a kind of 'cadence' through the steering linkage, as if the inside lip of the new drum might be rubbing on the edge of the backing plate. Don't know what else would make that kind of feeling/noise.

Had to change the oil today, so I grabbed each tire and wiggled it side to side vigorously. Left front is ok with no give, but the right front has noticeable play that wasn't there when I packed and re-installed the wheel just a couple weekends ago.

Could this be causing that kind of unbalanced knocking/cadence I hear through the steering linkage? Maybe I didn't torque the nut and locknut to the right spec of 70 inch pounds? Did I not pack the bearing full of grease enough?

Please someone give me their thoughts before I yank this thing apart again.

Pull the dust cap and retighten the nut to see if the play goes away. I always hand tighten them as tight as possible to seat the bearings, then back them off and tighten to spec.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

In my experience, they all wiggle some, esp with the drum bearing specs of 70in-lbs. You could also have wiggle in another component (balljoint, tie rod end) causing your wiggle/knock.

Check the bearing torque setting again and maybe go a bit beyond the spec, and see if it changes. If the bearing looked fine and sounds OK, just go with that. I spent years worrying about those little wiggles and never had a problem. Now I don't worry, but check them from time to time (when replacing pads, for example).

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks. I tightened the nut and that took up some of the play. Still getting the knocking - I'm pretty sure it's the front end, which needs rebuilding.

Joy!