Aftermarket calipers (wilwood) needing to reshim after wheel bearing replacement?

As the title states, I recently replaced my front wheel bearings out of preventative maintenance while replacing rotors on my 1993 civic hatchback SI, and something odd happened.

In putting everything back together, everything assembled properly, nothing rubbing, no binding, all good. All caliper shims that were removed were reinstalled in same positions.

Torqued wheel bearings down, installed wheels, and went for test drive. During left hand turns or instances of weight transfer to the right side of car (i.e. slalom), a scuffing sound was occurring from right front.

Naturally I thought, what did I do now... lol

Jacked front end up, let wheels spin at idle in 2nd gear, turning left/right, no noise, so it only makes noise with weight on it and during a turn.

A further inspection revealed the rear of the new rotor on right side had rubbed a witness ring around it. Looking closer, the threaded caliper bracket dowel that contained the bolt threads was for some reason literally almost touching the rotor. Took a feeler blade, would only pass a .008" or smaller in the gap.

Verified this closeness was the same on the left side, although the gap was a tiny bit wider, like 0.14", so it wasnt rubbing.

All this to say, could wheel bearings really have this much difference in overall thickness at the center races? The old bearings were cheap chinesium,but lasted a long time and never really needed to replace, but the new bearings were OE Koyo bearings (such a difference in quality, its so apparent haha).

The only thing that changed is the wheel bearings. Old hubs, old caliper shims, old axles, old axle nuts, just new bearings. The new bearings pressed into knuckles fine, snap ring fit the retaining groove just fine, and the old wheel hub pressed down into the new bearing just fine. Torqued axle nuts to factory spec.

The installation of these bearings is pretty fool proof, you essentially press things in until the press cant press anymore once the components bottom out, then you are done. It is what it is afterwards, nice and tight, no play.

BUT, if the new center bearing races were thinner, when the hub got pressed into place, this would change how close the hub, and consequently the rotor, got to the caliper bracket 

Knowing all of this, has anyone ever needed to reshim their Wilwood (or other calipers) after replacement of wheel bearings? The change in thickness (the shims I had to remove to recenter the caliper/rotor) was approximately 0.050".

Is this kinda par for the course in anyone else's experience? This was just something I wasn't expecting, but moving forward, will always be something I inspect upon replacement of wheel bearings in the future.

Wheel bearing compliance is also nice and tight, reinspection of retaining clips show no change, and reinspection of wheel bearing torque is still normal/in spec, so wheel bearings are definitely installed properly.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Talon.

drtalon123 said:

so it only makes noise with weight on it and during a turn.

...

Wheel bearing compliance is also nice and tight

This seems to me like there is some compliance somewhere. If it clears without any weight, shimming doesn't seem like the problem or solution. If you were to shim it so it doesn't drag under side load, wouldn't it drag in the absence of side load? 

Did you replace the races? New bearings of one manufacturer will most likely not be a perfect match for races from another manufacturer, and especially with some miles on them.

Just reshim them or pull them apart and match the races to the bearings if need be.

In reply to cyow5 :

I certainly agree with your sentiments, this was my thought exactly going in, in the sense that there was clearance before, but now there is not, so what changed?

In looking through some old pictures with the old bearings from when I first installed the Wilwood's, the rotors were perfectly centered in the caliper. This remained constant through multiple rotor and pad changeouts, so I kinda put clearance issues out of ny mind.

Enter these new wheel bearings, and just not being conscious of clearance related thoughts or issues because there hadnt been since the caliper install, inspecting things after bearing install, the pads and rotor centerline had noticbly shifted, to where the rotor is far from center while at rest/in the air/not under weight. The shift is also even top to bottom while in the air or on the ground with weight on it (using an alignment bracket bolted to hub), pads/pistons arent slanted/staggered or tilted, so doesnt really scream looseness.

The fact that it doesnt begin to touch or rub until cornering force is applied, and the fact that I'm dealing with an .008" gap before rubbing, I can easily picture normal deflections occurring at this distance from the hub centerline (we are about 7-8" from centerline where it begins to rub), meaning even a 0.001" play allowance in the bearings at the hub center would cause more movement/distance the farther you travel out from center, and even the best bearings need a compliance gap for thermal expansion.

I'm leaning to things being ok after another inspection last night. I didnt initially catch the fact that the rotor centerline had shifted so much, because I wasnt really thinking or looking out for this kind of problem to be a thing!

Here's a pic I took before and after I reshimmed:

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

Yes sir, new races come part of these bearings. I feel the same way.

I really do feel like the nee races have different depth/height compared to older ones, which caused this hub to deviate the rotor off of centerline.

I cant prove that very well without removing the new bearings, and I'm hesitant to because pressing the hubs back out almost always destroys the bearing seals!

But I'm curious for next time, this will be something I keep an eye out for next time!

For the curious, the centerline shift was about .045", required removing and replacing with a different shim to regain centerline again!

Wow: that is definitely something new to watch for when replacing wheel bearings, especially press in sealed type. Makes you wonder which set of bearings was out of spec on inner race thickness.