Wheel bearing or ball joints?

[poorpeet]

93 4 litre. With the car jacked up there is a fair bit of play in both front wheels if you grab then top & botton & rock them.
Question is how to identify if it is play in the wheel bearings or one or both ball joints?
Any ideas?

Pete

[joospeed]

It's as simple as looking to see where the play is .. get another person to rock teh wheel and you have a look behind the hub assembly .. you'll be able to see where it's moving

[poorpeet]

Doh!

[joospeed]

there's a bit of a red herring though .. the ball joints wear in the normal running position, so you really need the car on the groud again and pull on the top of the wheel .. the play you feel will either be bearing, top ball joint or top wishbone bushes or combination of all three.

to see play in the lower ball joint you need to have the wheel off the ground again and lever under it to lift it up .. any vertical movement in the joint is play