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hi there not sure if ive titles this correctly but il explain the problem im having i know there is probably an easy fix and im just to stupid to think of it....anyhow what is it is there is excess movement on the drivers side front and and also passenger side wheel now ive been taught to find out if its the hub press down on the break and it should stop moving which is the case for the passenger side front wheel however with the drivers side there is still movement but i cannot see any movement at all in the ball joints? any tips? also when tightening up the the hub nut the driveshaft only has one hole and the nuts keeps covering the hole and i cant possibly put it any tighter

phew sorry for the poor wording but if anyone could help me out that would be great

steven

I suspect that on the driver's side you have movement in the lower ball joint, which is not easy to see as it is spring loaded, a good test is to jack the car up & place a bar on the inside of the wheel rim & lever up against the lower ball joint nut, any play will immediately be noticeable. If that shows no play, put the bar under the tyre & lift while holding your fingers around the rubber cover of the top ball joint, you will feel movement that may not be easily visible. Another useful test, if you suspect ball joints, jack the car up, pump grease into the joints, if the play disappears, you know one or both of the joints have play in them. On the other side, if tightening a hub nut to the correct torque does not take out the play, your wheel bearing could be excessively worn, although if that was the case, it would be very noisy, it's more likely that the outer bearing tracks have spun in the hub & worn into the raised portion in the centre which provides the correct spacing to preload the bearings. The only reliable fix for this is a new hub.

Hi, Lord Croker might be right but one other consideration if there is a 'lot' of play in the front hub is missing dowels for the steering arms. They act as a guide and 2 of them sit on top of the hub aligning the steering arm with the hub. They are steel ring about 10mm outside diameter and 3mm deep. There should be 2 bolts running through them.
You could have reassembled without these items. The result is lots of play in the hub similar to knackered ball joints/wheel bearings. Hope this helps. Cheers. Mark

OK - with the brakes on, the disc is held firmly by the calliper with is rigidly attached to the upright so the only possible movement has to involve the whole hub - so it has to be ball joints (assuming we are talking about play in the vertical plane?).

Sometimes the movement cannot be seen but if you wrap your hand around the joint it can be felt....

Tightening the hub nut will do nothing if you are feeling for movement with the brakes firmly applied (because in this state the disc and hub are clamped to the upright) ... unless the drive flange is not firmly fixed to the disc????

Cheers, Ian

hey all thanks for the replies update to this drivers side has been fixed tightend up the hub nut some more and aplied some grease to the balljoints sorted hooray however passenger side ive just spent the last 2 hrs on still lose however when brakes are applied there is no movement