My driver rear wheel had some loose play from top to bottom when the car jacked up so i assumed it was the wheel bearing/hub and ordered a new spindle assembly. My mechanic took the old one off and realized the idiot i ordered the new one from gave me a passenger side spindle, so he simply reinstalled my old one and told me to come back when the right one came in. Once i got home i jacked the car up and to my surprise the wheel has no play anymore! Could the removal/installation fixe the problem i had? Could there of been something loose that was tightened properly when reinstalling the "bad" spindle? should i even have it replaced?

Thanks in advance

 

Re-torquing the axle nut may have temporarily solved the problem. Usually the indication of a bad bearing will be the noise, I had no noticeable play in the wheel even with a bad bearing. If you had the infamous wheel bearing noise it will likely come back but you might as well wait until it does, won't hurt to have a spare on hand though.

 

Uh... I'd say your mechanic was closer to being an "idiot." There is no left or right spindle. There is only the spindle.
Note that both sides are the same - part #6.


Anyway, play in the wheel like that is because of the bearing, not spindle or knuckle. If you still have the same bearing, you likely still have the same issue.