Technical Questions and Discussions - Passenger side rear movement

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Passenger side rear movement

Printed From: West Coast Fieros
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Forum Name: Technical Questions and Discussions
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Printed Date: 24 November 2024 at 8:03am
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Topic: Passenger side rear movement

Posted By: CFoss
Subject: Passenger side rear movement
Date Posted: 23 May 2009 at 7:01pm

Hi all. I've been plagued by a rear end steering issue when applying the throttle or removing it. This is on the 88 rear I installed.

So, I tracked it to a toe in/out movement of the rear passenger side wheel. I suspected bushings, so I changed all to poly and the movement is still there. I can get it to move by pushing the wheel around while it's unloaded in the air. The opposite side is solid for comparasin.

My next suspect is the wheel bearing, but I'm not very familiar with how it comes apart.

Do you guys figure I'm on the right track? Are the 88 rear bearing easy to come by (Part number if anyone has it lying around)?

Thanks,

Chay

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86 SE 3.4

Replies:

Posted By: Dr.Fiero
Date Posted: 23 May 2009 at 7:22pm

IIRC the rear 88 bearings are the same as the rears of an 'early' car.

edit: yup... just ran the part number (BR930091K) through the interchange. All years, all engines. Same.

Posted By: Capt Fiero
Date Posted: 23 May 2009 at 8:15pm

Dang if you would have made this post about 4hrs earlier, I could have snapped pics. Tore down 2 rear hubs, complete brake removal, disc removal, CV shaft removal and finally the bearings.

To be honest, its about a 20min job to pull the bearing if you have air tools.

Yes to add to Dr.s comments. The rear bearings are the same on the 88, slightly different hardware, but the same bearing.

The only things that I have found to cause my 88 to act "funny" was having 2 different length end links. I had busted one bolt and replaced it with a new one, and never bothered to double check that the threaded section was as long as the other one. Ended up once torqued down, was keeping one wheel torqued up, and the other torqued down. On / Off throttle got a tad bit freaky in the rain, car would corner great on a right turn, however a left in the rain, could have you 360 degree's about rather quickly.

Another issue I had was a shot rear strut, caused an issue. Once fixed it was great.

Only other odd 88 issue I had and this should not apply to your car, but the alignment shop did NOT torque the bolts correctly and I had one that was not even hand tight when I jacked it up for inspection a week later.

If you did a cradle swap, you won't have any problems at all doing a bearing. New rear bearings are roughly $100 each, seen as low as 75 and high as 125 depending on store and discount.

Just remove wheel, remove brake caliper, pull rotor off, remove large 30mm CV shaft nut. 88's used large torx bolts similar to the seatbelt bolts. T-50 I beilvie on the bearing, so remove 3 torx bolts for the bearing and then bang, beat, cuss scream, hammer, and pry the beaing off. Just kidding, its not really that bad. Some of them you just remove the 3 bolts and the bearing falls off, others you have to remove the bolts and use a medium pry bar to pop it off. Only time I ever had a nightmare bearing was an 88 Front bearing, which is the impossible to find locally bearing.

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Capt Fiero
88 Fiero GT 5spd V6
Eight Fifty Seven GT V8 5spd.

Posted By: CFoss
Date Posted: 24 May 2009 at 8:42am

Thanks for the replies guys. This one is hard to troubleshoot because it seems like everything is moving when I torque on the wheel. there is definately a toe in movement still though. Frustrating.

I found an exploded diagram and it doesn't look too complex. The book recommends replacing the knuckle seal as well...have you guys found this to be necessary?

Thanks again. Time to go make some parts fly.

Chay

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86 SE 3.4

Posted By: Dr.Fiero
Date Posted: 24 May 2009 at 9:18am

Quite often as the axle is pulled in & out, the splines etc drag across it and chew it up. So, it just really depends on who was doing it over the last 25 years, and how careful they were!

IIRC, the seal is like $5, and it's really easy to replace. If you take the seal out, ot also gives you the chance to totally clean up and paint the knuckle assembly (with it out, it's more or less a straight hole through it).

Posted By: CFoss
Date Posted: 24 May 2009 at 9:32am

Thankfully I won't have to do the bearing. I found the problem.

There is a long longitudinal bolt going through the front and rear bushings at the knuckle, and the knuckle itself. On closer inspection the threads were distressed, making it feel like the bolt was tight when it was not. I cleaned up the nut and bolt with tap/die, then tightened it up again...movement gone!

Thanks again for the replies.

Chay

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86 SE 3.4

Posted By: CFoss
Date Posted: 25 May 2009 at 9:45am

Last comment on this....the test drive was smashing! This is before reallignment, so the handaling will get even better I'm sure, but the movement is gone. Also, I was experiencing some 'engine slap' like I had a worn out dogbone (But it's brand new poly). I think what was happening was the wheel(s) were torquing under load to the extent it was causing a loose drivetrain feeling. No more surging at low power settings! Fantastic!

Chay

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86 SE 3.4