Front suspension

Conventional Alfa double wishbone. Uses a rigid lower arm, and a flexible upper one to give excellent handling with acceptable refinement. A torsion bar attached to the lower arm provides the springing, and makes ride height adjustment a possibility. Wheel bearings are adjustable taper-roller.
My car seems to have suffered quite severe wear at the front. Most of the parts will need attention to get things back on track.

Front wheel bearings

The bearings are conventional taper-roller.  

To inspect, lube and adjust, proceed as follows:

1. Slacken the wheel nuts, jack and support the car and remove the road wheel.
2. Now take off the grease cap (carefully, with a blunt tool). Remove the split pin. If the grease looks fine, skip to step 10. Otherwise…
3. Remove the two brake caliper fixing bolts, and move the caliper to one side (being careful not to strain the brake hose).
4. Remove the hub nut and thrust washer.
5. Pull the hub towards you, then push it back. Extract the outer bearing race and lift the brake disc and hub clear.
6. Clean the outer race carefully with degreasant. Inspect the rollers for any sign of wear, pitting or blue discolouration – renew the bearings if in doubt. A brownish colour (not rust!) suggests marginal lubrication and/or minor overheating caused by over-tightening the bearing or low quality grease. So long as the bearing surfaces are smooth, the bearings are probably OK. Check the bearing taper too.
7. Scoop out all the old grease from the hub with your fingers and clean round the oil seal. If you are replacing the bearings, you need to remove the seal to get at the inner bearing.
8. Pack the hub and race with good quality high melting point lithium-based grease (greyish LM is better than the yellow stuff). Don’t overfill it.
9. Replace the hub, bearing, washer and tighten the nut “finger tight”.
10. While rotating the hub forwards, slowly tighten the hub nut to no more than 25Nm. The bearing will drag, but it should still turn smoothly. Slacken the hub nut, then tighten to around 5Nm. Then slacken by 90°. This basically leaves the nut “finger tight”. The bearing should turn freely. Repeat if the bearing feels too slack.
11. Replace the split pin and grease cap.
12. Carefully remove *all* traces of grease from the brake disc with solvent. Even fingerprints! Refit the brake caliper if you removed it earlier.
13. Replace the roadwheel. Grip the wheel firmly and try to rock it – for less-than-new bearings, very slight movement is just fine. Setting the bearings tight will just wreck them.
14. Lower the car, and torque the wheel nuts fully.