loose cone washer axle nuts = x bearing

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:52 am

Must be 10,000km since I had a squik,squik noise come and go, took a while to find the rear wheel axle nut was loose. My immediate thought was the bearings were on the way out. Another cone washer and nut combo, tightened up fixed the noise and the play. Now that I have come to dismantle things I find the outer bearing of the rear hub concerned of 4WD axle, was shot - play wise, no noises, just a lot of free play in the stub axle once everything had been removed to reveal just the hub.
Moral of this story is if your axle nuts have come loose, you want continued reliability- check your bearings with a tear down !

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:47 am

Good advise. I would first replace the washers and refit the wheel, then test for wheel bearing play. Sometimes the washers come loose because they weren't fitted correctly last time the brakes were checked. I cannot stress enough to others the importance of having clean or new taper washers.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 10:11 pm

Any place I can buy new cone washers? Just realized this week I'm short 2 cone washers and big flat washers for my wagon, can't put the backside back on the ground without them! Looking for new ones frantically, might need to make an emergency rush down to U-tug it.

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu Jun 26, 2014 3:20 am

Silverbullet wrote:Any place I can buy new cone washers? Just realized this week I'm short 2 cone washers and big flat washers for my wagon, can't put the backside back on the ground without them! Looking for new ones frantically, might need to make an emergency rush down to U-tug it.

Have you checked with Andy?

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 8:38 pm

Well this was relevant to me today for sure; exactly the same as Jonno described with a squik squik from the rear a few weeks ago, today horrible horrendous clunk, crunch, grind....

Pulled over on the way home, jack up the rear wheel and the whole wheel/hub assembly was loose as a goose, axle nut loose

Not sure how this can happen, I've never taken that axle nut off since I've owned the car! The cone washer amazingly wasn't all torn up and there were no metal shavings coming out of the bearing area. Needed to call the RAA because wouldn't ya know it I forgot to take my 36mm socket with me today

So silent on the way home but a new wheel bearing kit has been ordered, don't want to trust those bearings for too long.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:39 pm

Pushed out all the old bearings just now, nothin like getting dirty on a week night

Maybe I had a dud seal as well, or the whole axle being loose destroyed one of the seals; all the grease was very dirty and black, that of it that wasn't old and crusty. Evidence of a previous wheel bearing replacement maybe, some dings and dents in the housing. One inner race with all the rollers was very dry, like all the grease had run out.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:00 am

Yep, always an obvious sign of a loose castle nut. I've had it before and it took me a while to work it out.

The other thing it can be - and I've had it before - is the bolts that hold the disc to the front hubs; I've had them come loose so they were rubbing on the hub of the wheel. Wasn't good!

Cheers

Bennie