new front hubs..more speed?

lawnripper

I just replaced my front hubs, bearings and seal.. and replaced the tie rods and tie rod end joints. Both my girlfriend and I swear the cart is noticeably faster? The down side is I overtightend the passenger side tierod end joint The bolt is on tight but If I try to back it off it just spins.

BGW

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pachanga90

If the bearings were too tight or damaged,they will drag,and cause rolling-resistance.If your front-end is out of alignment enough,that too will cause resistance.

Gonkulor

Old school bearing adjustment was to spin the wheel and tighten until there was resistance than back off to the first cotter pin.

JohnnieB

There are two nuts on the tierod end.
One is a castle nut that a cotter pin keeps from loosening and the other is a jam nut that keeps the tierod from loosening and changing wheel alignment.

Which one was overtightened?

Gonkulor

I dint get he first issue of the tie rod. You have to re align your wheels. You want an 1/8 toe in. If this isn't what your looking for as an answer please redo your question.

lawnripper

Thanks guys! Was not really much of a question.. just a observation.. the Older bearings had a lot of play.. were really old.. Seems like there is a bit more speed now. So I was happy.

I over tightened the castle nut on the passenger side ball joint. And possibly overtightend the 2 inner ball joints on the idler arm.


The alignment is almost there.. I have to go back and re adjust though..

lawnripper

As for the wheel alignment I went by the instructions on the service manual.... is there any other links for step by step instructions on proper alignment. The passenger side tie rod has a LOT of thread exposed on each side and the drivers side tie rod has pretty much no room for adjusting left. I looked at the old ones and they appear to be the same.

Gonkulor

If you cart is like mine, and my cars, and previous vehicles I have had, one of the tie rods should be left handed thread. I, Myself would knock the joints out of the arms to start them adjustment over from scratch. I'm guessing that someone previously didn't know about the left handed thread thing and they did the adjustment the hard way..... by knocking the joint out and doing the whole adjustment from just one end.

Once you have the center rod, umm well.... centered between the two rod ends, then you can turn just that rod to get proper toe in or toe out. Of course the jam nuts need to stay loose while doing such practical maneuvering.

Good luck man and please ask more if you need to and keep us informed.

Gonkulor

BTW, I have witnessed someone trying to do a righty tighty on a left handed thread till it was no longer usable. or maybe it was a left handed thread into a right handed bore? I forget but it was funny. I also had a mechanic lead punch a 1/4 drill bit through some metal when the drill press was spin in the opposite direction needed for cutting! Crap happens! And all these people worked on airplanes. LOL. thank God we have inspection.

lawnripper

2000 pds 3 bolt style.

1. lifted the front just a tiny bit ( wheels still touching the ground)
2. rotated the steering wheel all the way to the left.
3. Adjusted the drivers side tie rod so that the spindle arm is touching the U bracket.
4. tightened the tie rod nuts. rotated the steering wheel so that it was centered.
5. Adjusted the passenger side tie rod ( which needed a lot of adjustment.. the tire was really towed in.) I measured from center to center of the front tires. I measured each tire center to the center of the axle and I eyeballed it a bit as well.
6. Checked the idler arm to make sure it was within the 1/2 from the center. (it is a bit more than 1/2 in. from center.

That is basically how I aligned the front so far. Does not seem to pull one way or the other.

I am disappointed because I over tightened most of the castle nuts. If I try to back them off the threaded part of the ball joint spins. Also the passenger side ball joint that is connected to the idler arm has a little bit of horizontal play.. which is why I replaced all of this (the old ones had ALOT of play.) I tried adding some more grease but it seems full or there is no space to add because I over tightend the castle nut?

On the old worn out set up the cart would track.. catch parts of the road (bumpy road) and pull. I filled all of it with grease, tightened it all up and it seemed to stop the catching from happening. Last night while road testing it seemed to be catching again... :( Or maybe it is in my head and I am paranoid. On level even ground it seems to ride just fine, tight and responsive.

So this is where I am at. Do I need to back off the castle nuts some how( maybe a C-Clamp would help?) and retighten? or just leave them like they are and just check on them once in a while?

ps. Thanks again guys!!! Gonkulor.. JohnnieB all of ya!