Which bearing retainer are you talking about? Are you talking about the keeper or "wedding ring" that is pressed onto the axle to hold in on?

Or the plate that bolts on the outside of the brake backing plate that tightens the axle to the housing end?

The prior bearings had over 5,000 hard miles on them and were both just starting to get a bit rough feeling when turning them, there was no side to side movement to them at all yet. I replaced them just because. I changed nothing else, the axle tubes have billet ends on them that look fine and the axle themselves are straight and true. Here we are using a lathe to turn the old keepers off of the axles...if anything was out of whack it would have shown here.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-z...125928_305.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-b...130651_548.jpg

We'll double check the trueness of everything axle related later on today when swapping the bearing.

This.

My moser roller bearing set up had that much play as well. From the day I first touched them to the day I swapped them for a tapered bearing. I don't think it's your shimmy. I do think it is why your wheel is rubbing your shock bracket. When I built my car, wildwood and moser weren't on the same page and there wasn't proper preload on the roller bearing. They fixed it after I made them aware. Make sure your bearings are properly preloaded. Moser should have that spec.

So much smoother now... :excited:

This is what the inside of the Green Company bearing with 270 miles on it looks like.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--...164640_196.jpg

That is metal from the outer race that has turned the blue colored grease dark.

Just for comparison, this is the inside of the Federal Mogul bearing that came with my axles 5 years ago that have about 5,000 very hard miles on them.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8...165634_438.jpg

They still didn't have any play in them but were a little rough feeling when turning.

The new Federal Mogul bearing also turns much smoother and easier than than the Green Company bearing it replaced. I'll probably do the passenger side as well soon just because.