Front Wheel Bearing Play

[Pucketsport]

Thanks Phil I just remembered that the bearing race is angled to take some lateral load so you are correct it will make matters worse. The bearings were press-fit into the hub so hub should be fine. I may try the skim on the spacer .
Thanks again for your help

[Pucketsport]

I decided to measure the bearing play using a dial gauge and the result was that the RHS has 9 thou freeplay and the LHS has 13 thou. I'm not sure if I should machine off the full amount, maybe leave 1 thou and see what the result is. I attached a photo below of how I set up the magnetic base with gauge. The knuckle has a fairly solid base to locate the magnetic base off which helps.

[philthehill]

I take it that the play is in line with the stub axle and not rocking play.
I would suggest that you take off 0.004" at a time and retest.
Better to take off not enough than too much.

[les]

I suspect you have measured the 'rocking' play, rather than movement with a straight pull push, sorry if have that wrong! I think these bearings only have play when rocking the wheel.

[Pucketsport]

Thanks for the replies. No I measured this play by pulling the hub outwards evenly and then pushing it back evenly with force applied to both sides , so I'm fairly confident its axial movement rather than rocking. What I might do tonight is repeat the measurement with the dial indicator located on the centre of the grease cap just to be sure there was no rocking factor.
I will take your advice Phil and not do it all in one go.
Thanks

[Pucketsport]

So I repeated the measurement with the dial gauge probe on the grease cap as central as possible and there was a slight reduction in the measurement. The RHS play previously measured 9/1000" and now measured 7/1000". The LHS went from 13/1000" to 12/1000" .
I got one of our toolmakers at work to surface grind the spacers leaving 1/000" on each and will fit them tonight ( fingers crossed).

[Pucketsport]

Success. The play was reduced by the amount of material that I removed and left approximately 1/1000" of play each side. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I removed the spacers again and removed the last 1/1000" with water paper on a flat surface and now there is no play at all. Thanks to all for the advice, I would recommend using the dial gauge method to anyone else with this issue. They are expensive but we all know someone who knows someone who has one.