slightly bent front hub..slightly

[Terry Cox #26379]

 Hello all, first off i am a new member and really like the club and format. I purchased a 73' eldorado back in march,10. i drove the car home from N.C. to lou, Ky. area where i live. A distance of appx. 650 miles.  When i got home with the car i started doing all the usual once overs in fine detail to get the car running like it should. First order of business was to check out the right front hub that had some "play" in it that was noticed in Camden,S.C. when the tire store i stopped at was replacing the old dry rottted set of tire's  that had a belt shift in one and was loosing chunks of rubber on the rainy interstate.  So, i jacked her up and noticed that indeed there was an abnormal amount of "play" in that side of the front end. Being the "do it right or don't do it all " knid of guy that i was taught, i just went ahead and dropped the spindle, pulled the half-shaft and took my hub to a old timer car buddy of mine down the country road from me and pressed out the bearing's. (no grease to speak of, rusty and some water droplets) upon installation in his arbor press, he could not find his "collar" plate to hold all in stable fashion for the pressing in of the new bearing pack, so he improvised, and came up with some "steel stock" (1")  lying around  and pressed it in. He had mentioned that he hoped it did not bend it since he had to use this same method to remove the old pack and it was a real task. So then back at my house i put it together and upon spinning the hub/axle that i repaired, i noticed an ever so slight amount of ..," bend, out of roundness, ect." with the hub..easy to see with the studs showing some corrolation. i went ahead and put the wheel/tire on and drove the car and the front end did not exhibit any bad behavior at all. (how much could you feel anyway in such a ride ?) 
But, i am the type that i know it is not exact. it bothers me. am i going to run into problems on one of my several state jaunt's?  will it only shorten bearing life by certain percentage later down the road, or, worse yet, will i damage the new half shaft, front end .."hoghead", and/or other components as well. I cannot get rest through my deductions on this. Would someone chime in on this  to give this 50 yr. young guy some sleep finally? Thanks so much,  and i have several more posts , but will take things one at a time. Terry cox  ....73.Eldorado coup'e cabriolet w/ 58 k from n.c./ s.c. eastermost border.

[Dave Shepherd]

To get a definitive answer we need to know how much runout you have, this should be measured with a dial indicator at the hub mounting surface.

[TJ Hopland]

My 73 has always had an odd vibration that feels like its in the front. I have a 75 that runs nice and smooth.   This summer I broke out the dial indicator and made some comparisons.  I did not save any of the measurements but when I measured the run out on the 73 hub I thought ahh ha finally found the problem.   Went and measured the 75 and it had 3 spots that were worse.    I then mounted a wheel and tire and measured from various points on the same wheel and tire on both cars and could really not see any difference.   Not doing a multi step cross torque on the lug nuts makes a much greater difference. 

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

All things being equal, if the bearings are correctly seated, and there is no "looseness" in the shaft, then the flange face will require machining if there is any run-out.

Bruce.

[Terry Cox #26379]

Terry Cox here... Thanks men for the reply's on the hub question of my Eldorado. i will have to get a dial and check the runout. i won't be able to get back to the car repair until after jan, 3,2011. I'm planning on travelling quite a bit, as i suppose some of you will as well. This old car really has no bouncing / vibration ,ect. in the frontend. but i will post back (in a new post) when i get back to the car work and let all know how your advice worked out.  I previously mentioned i  decided that i'm going to replace axle shaft on the driver side, but i've now bought a new bearing pack for that side as well. and if it needs anything else..well...i guess i'll do that too. i'm suprised that the first side had water in the bearing / hub ass'y. but i guess at 37 yrs, old..and probably a dry rotted seal.... i just want to be sure. Thanks so much.. Terry cox ( and i'll figure out why my PROPER name is not showing up on my "log in" ) i read it is supposed to be..happy trails...

[TJ Hopland]

If you really plan to put on some miles it may be worth looking at the GMC motorhome sites.  They pretty much used the same front end and drive line in the early to mid 70's factory built rigs.  They have come up with some tweaks to add grease fittings to the front bearings. They have several heavy duty mods and parts for this drive setup.