The temperature of vertical pump bearing metal in the pumped storage power plant has been high enough to shutdown the unit. Attempts such as decreasing the oil supply temperature, increasing the bearing oil gap etc. were performed to resolve the problem, but the issue was not resolved. Finally, the high bearing metal temperature was corrected by adjusting the bearing preload. The preload is formed by the oil wedge between the journal surface and bearing pad surface and the degree of preload is determined by the machined radial clearance, assembled radial clearance, rotor journal diameter etc. This paper focuses on the analysis of the preload depending on the bearing parameters and the result of the modification of the bearing following the analysis. The bearing metal temperature dropped as much as $20^{circ}C$ which was similar as expected by software calculation. But the shaft vibration could increase when the assembled radial clearance is excessive. So, the adjustment of the bearing preload for the tilting pad type journal bearing should be carefully performed.