Well I've completely buttoned up my passenger front end after changing the axle u-joint at the wheel and new pads/rotors. Once I got it all back together I gave the tire a little wiggle by grabbing top and bottom to check for any wobble. It was fine that way. But when I grabbed in front and behind the tire and wiggle I did have a noticeable amount of wobble. I noticed the whole hub and tire would wobble together so I know the lug nuts are on tight. Does it have something to do with the way I reassembled the internal hub parts?? I used the special 4 prong socket for the two nuts inside. I tightened them to how I thought they were before I took them off. They were not that tight at all. Plus I didn't want to over tighten and ruin the wheel bearing it was up against. Any thoughts???

 

You probably have a bad tie rod end.

 

The proper way to tighten the spindle nuts is you tighten the inner nut to about 30 ft lbs while spinning the hub with your hand. This is to make sure the bearings are seated properly. After you do that, loosen the nut and tighten it so that it's just hand-tight. Take the socket in your hand WITHOUT a ratchet on it and turn the nut until it won't turn anymore. Don't "force" it tighter with your hand either. Just turn it until the nut bottoms out and stops turning and STOP. Then put the washer on and put the outer nut on. The outer nut gets tightened to about 200 ft lbs. That prevents the inner nut from loosening up on its own, since it's just hand-tight.

If the spindle nuts are properly tightened, then I would look at the tie rods. When you wiggle the tire back and forth, does the whole steering knuckle wiggle with it? If it does, the problem is probably not the spindle nuts and it's probably a tie rod. If the hub and rotor wiggle but the knuckle does not, it's probably a problem with the spindle nuts.

 

Oh wow. Yeah I definitely did not tighten the outer spindle nut to 200 ft/lbs. Probably not even close. I barely hand tightened the first (inner) one. The second one I might have tightened a tiny bit more. Would that cause my manual hub cover to be loose? I tightened the 6 or so hex screws on it as tight as I could but it still wobbled.

 

yea, it sounds like your spindle nuts are still loose.

 

I think it was the spindle nuts and the tie rod end lol. I tightened them to the specs and seems to have cured 95% of the wobble. I'm sure the tie rod ends can use a replacement as well as the ball joints. I greased everything real good while it was all apart. I just didn't want to get into having to get it aligned. The axle u-joint was the problem so I replaced that. And the rotors and pads were shot so those were changed as well. Now to start the driver side tomorrow. Planning on just doing pads and rotors! Thanks for all the help!!