so im driving down the freeway at about 75 in the brat and all of a sudden the car starts wiggling side to side, i back down off the on/off switch and the wiggle goes away. today i had it up on the lift and found that my rear wheel bearings on both sides are loose for the third time in 6 months, I replaced all wheel bearings when i got the truck but they keep comming loose, i have the cotter pins installed and i torqued the nuts to the factory spec's using the factory manual. anybody know what might be wrong.

The rear wheel bearings are held in by a big threaded ring on the backside of the trailing arm. It's got notches in it to turn it by - the outer part of the trailing arm has a thin metal ring that acts as a lock, by bending a portion of it into the notches in the threaded ring. This prevents it from unthreading itself, and loosening the bearing. I would start with that - make sure it is TIGHT, and also has a couple of those notches bent down to hold it in place.

 

Edit - I just saw you have a Gen 1 - so what I just said may or may not apply. If it does, great. Otherwise, you'll need assistance from a Gen 1 person..... hehe

 

GD

from doing heavy duty bearings

while spinning hub, tourque nut to 200ftlb, loosen, torque to spec

found the problem last night when the wheel fell off. The nut on the outside of the drum has a tapered washer under it that was calapsed, this caused the spindel shaft to wear and then when it finaly got thin enough it just broke. I chased the wheel through a couple of nice lawns in Lake Oswego(ritzy) they didnt like that to much. suprisingly the car never hit the ground. lucky. Tonight i get to install another spindleand brake drum, I was thinking about doing the rear disc conversion now.