How tight is too tight - Front CV axles and new bearings

[take123]

I replaced both CV axles, got new races and bearings for the Hubs, and put in new grease. When mounting the rotor/hub/bearing onto the spindle I followed the pre-loading instruction, I don't have a fish gauge to measure the small amount of pound force, but did the rotational test to see if it's spinning okay. All my brakes are unmounted.

On my passenger side, the full assembly, with hub/rotor on the CV axle and knuckle, doing the preloading and tightening per FSM, and with Flange mounted, it can spin relatively okay with not a lot of effort. It's not so loose that it's just spinning around like a bicycle wheel, I don't need to put a lot of force and squeeze hard with my arms.

On the driver side, after fully assembly of the flange, it is tighter than the passenger side to spin the rotor. I gotta put a bit more force on it to turn it left and right. My memory is before I mounted the flange, the hub/rotor was able to spin good left/right after pre-loading and tightening the nuts on the bearing. I'm now second guessing if I did the pre-loading/tightening right for the bearing on the driver side, so contemplating taking apart the flange and redoing the spindle nuts mounting and double checking the forces and rotating the hub without the flange.


Truck is fully lifted on front, there are no wheels/tires on the front.
Transfer case is in "N".
Car transmission is in "P". I'm wondering should I put this in "N", had it on "P" to be safer on jacks?


Was wondering is it normal one side may be tighter to spin the wheel than the other? I'm wondering if the CV axle on the diff on drivers side is just tighter?
The driver side does have a pipe extending out of the diff, it's farther away from the diff. Whereas the passenger side the CV sticks right into the diff. Maybe that's a small difference in tightness?

I might put my lift under the driver side lower control arm, lift it up a bit, and see if it makes it looser.

 

[Bisho]

Take off the hub flange and judge the job without the drag of the drivetrain. If you're satisfied the bearings are seated properly put it back together. Did you grease the spindle bearings before you put the flange back on? Jacking the lower control arm should have no impact.

BTW, with the transfer case in N your transmission is essentially disconnected from the drivetrain, so P isn't helping. You could leave the transfer case in H, and as long as the center diff isn't locked, you should be able to turn the wheels.

 

[take123]

I just disassembled the driver side hub off the spindle. Yes spindle was lubed up. Re-did the mounting of the bearings and spun the rotor around without the flange, and it's feeling great. Then put the flange back on, and ya it's tight.

I kept the transfer case in N and moved the Parking to Neutral, and no difference. Moving the lower arm up and down no difference as you mention. I moved the transfer case to H, and both left and right CV axles were tight as a rock, i don't think I can move it with my bare hands.

Since the car's diff and transfer and transmission had no issues before I lifted the truck up, and the CV axles went in no issues and can spin with some force, and the bearings feel good without the flange on, I would just consider it ready to go and do a test drive.

 

[2001LC]

Resistance after hub flange installed on wheel bearing hub, is expected. Even with TC in N. A little more on one side or the other, if okay. This is not an indications of wheel bearings pre-load.

You did not set wheel bearing preload, which is important is done.
Preload is set with a spring scale (fish scale). We torque the wheel bearing adjustor nut, until we se ~12lb (9lb to 15lb) pull on spring scale (breakaway preload). At this point we feel resistance as we spin wheel hub. The torque on the adjustor nut, ranges from 45ft-lbf to 80ft-lbf to archive this resistance with good bearings. The wide torque range on the nut, that we see. Is due to a number of factors.

If breakaway preload set to low. Wheel bearing will chatter (vibrate). This result in claw washer (washer between bearing and adjustor nut) being scored (groove), which result in wheel bearing be loose. The deeper the score on claw washer. The looser the wheel bearings. The loose the wheel bearings, the greater the chatter.

With a preload of ~12lb on spring scale, I see torques of:
Junky bad bearings 20ft-lbf
New bearings ~47ft-lbf
Good broken-in bearing ~65ft-lbf
Very good broken-in bearing 80ft-lbf.

Note: It's important, grease not be cold or resistance will be from thick cold grease. I average ~72f.