Turning the steering wheel may not show the slop. Leave the column locked to hold it in place and wiggle the wheel by hand back and forth. If your wife is willing and able to do that, you can lay underneath and look for play and listen for a click as the rack moves inside.

If you're talking about the spindle nut on the front rotor of a 2 wheel drive, I'm not sure of the text book procedure. I've been doing it for half a Century and go by feel. Grease everything up good and use a pair of slip joint pliers to rotate the nut down by hand. Rotate the brake rotor with one hand and tighten with the other. Do it slowly so you can feel the drag on the rotor. Tighten until the rotor starts to drag then back off a fraction of a turn until the drag goes away. This is assuming the bearing races are seated properly. Install the castellated lock washer and put a cotter key through it.

 

I usually tighten by hand, spin the rotor a bit, turn the nut, spin the rotor, etc. When I can't turn it by hand any more, I will use a large wrench on it, and turn it tighter far enough to get the cotter key in. Spin it some more, and give it a wiggle, make sure there isn't any slop, and call it a day. Puts a LITTLE bit of pre-load on the bearings, but, doesn't over-tighten. Never had a problem with that method.

 

Your way and Grouch's way are pretty much the same way I always did it before but I just want to make sure. Some vehicles give a torque spec like on these bearing hub cars that are like 160 ft/lbs or sumpin'. I was working on my wife's Jeep at the same time as my truck and wondering if I torqued my axle nut the same way. I don't think so but I get spacey in my older age so I want to go back and make sure I do it right. Thanks, HY!

 

If you have bearings that you can take out with your fingers from the rotor, those do NOT get torqued to some of the truly stupid values a hub/bearing unit would be. Doing so would eat the bearings in a few miles.

 

Thanks for the tip, Grouch. I definitely did not inspect it that way so I will give your way a look. Coincidentally, I bought some Energy Suspension rack mount bushings a half year ago. It's one job I never did. I have what I believe is a roll pin holding the intermediate shaft to the pinion. There's not a whole lot of room to work with down there and not certain how to push (and reinstall) that roll pin. Ralph and Hey You actually gave me some pointers how to get that roll pin out. Maybe I'll have to go back and find it. If I recall Ralph and Hey You suggested I would have to disconnect the intermediate shaft only to swap bushing mounts. Wouldn't need to disconnect the tie rods or power steering fluid lines in order to swap the mount bushings. Maybe I ought to just swap the bushings and put any doubt to rest about the rack shifting seeing I have the bushings already.

Today I had the truck out and there are times the clunk is followed by a thud (there is definitely something wrong). That tells me something is shifting. Rack? Possibly. Maybe something on or around the steering knuckle since that is where the noise seems to be coming from? I know I went and made sure every bolt on that knuckle was tight (and they were). But maybe I have an enlarged ball joint or tie rod hole on that knuckle and the tapered balljoint stud is shifting around in there. Just thinking out loud here. I'll look again to see if I see any slippage or shifting around the balljoints including the tie rod end.

 

Well, those are exactly the type of bearings I have. I changed them myself (Timkens) when I did my front brakes. I don't believe I torqued it to a truly stupid value but I know me. I coulda had a brain cramp going at the time. That's why I want to go back and do them right just to be sure. If my memory serves, I tightened the nut till the point the wheel did not rotate. Then I backed it off till it had an ever so light drag when rotated. That's where I pegged it.

 

Wish I could remember how to copy/paste a PDF page from my FSM to this thread. Ralph only showed me 100 times. Here try this.

 

Torquing a hub assembly I use a torque wrench but on the spindle nuts, I've done so many over the decades I use the German "Gudentite" method. A thunk followed by a thud is definite cause for concern.

You do realize don't you that once you find and correct the issue, you will have so much experience with these truck front ends that myself and HeyYou will defer to your experience.

 

I worked on cars a bit when I was younger back in the 70s into the 80s. Then life got in the way and I got busy and didn’t have much time to work on cars. I did some, hired out most. But I have time now so I do most of it. Hire out the jobs that require being all the way underneath the truck with the undercarriage stuffed in my face. U-joints, mufflers, motor mounts. Too old for that crap. I remember how to do most of it, figure some of it out, ask when I’m not sure or try to get more opinions. That’s why I love this forum. About a half dozen -10 guys who know their stuff. It’s VERY helpful and y’all provide a very valuable service to us few who really need it.

I take more than I give because I don’t have the experience others have. But I will give when I am able. The honest truth is I do not enjoy working on cars. Never have. I did it more out of necessity than anything else. But I have to admit the guys on this forum make it a bit more enjoyable. . It’s always fun to learn. And I do miss Ralph.

 

Yeah, Ralph's absence leaves a big hole here. I miss him too.

There was a time when I actually ENJOYED working on cars. Of course, that was many years ago, back when I was young, healthy, and poor. (now I am old, unhealthy, and still poor. ) These days, I just can't do a lot of the things I used to take for granted. That whole 'get down on the floor, wrench a bit, get up, grab tools, get back down on the floor' thing just doesn't work for me any more. After four or five iterations of that, I am done.... and need to take a break for a while. I can push myself, and keep going a little bit longer, when absolutely necessary, but, I pay for that later..... and it will take me a couple days to recover. It really sucks, but, there it is. Been dealing with it for more than a decade now, so, I have a good idea of what my limitations are, and try not to exceed them. (though I still have my stupid moments.......) Of late, I have been paying someone else to do the work that I used to do without a second thought. I dislike spending the money, but, the work needs done, and I can't/don't wanna do it. If I have someone to help, even if all they are doing is handing me tools, things go much better, but, none of my grandkids seem interested in learning any of this, and my kids all have their own lives to deal with. My granddaughter offered to help me once, but, at the time, she was like 8 years old, and all dressed for church..... So, having her out in the garage in a dress just didn't seem like a good idea. Maybe I should have taken her up on it. Might have piqued her interest in things mechanical.