At 2:11 PM -0400 5/21/99, shawn tobin wrote:
> I was thinking of replacing my rear axle hub bearings when I replace my
> differential. Are there any tricks to this?
>
> What about the kits sold by Victoria British? Are they any good or are they
> sealed bearings that will fail in a couple of years?
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> -Shawn Tobin
> -'69 Midget 5spd WIRE WHEELS
> -'86 Jag VDP
> -'72 Skylark
Shawn,
Below is a series of emails about rear hubs. Hope it helps. As to the
quality of what's out there, I got my bearings and hub at Atlanta Imported
Auto Parts <http://www.atlbritishautoparts.com/>. They are a Moss reseller,
though I got the hub used. No problems in 12,000 miles.
Jeff
===================================
Date: 26-Jan-1998 15:57:10 From: Subject: Re: half shaft oil seal
>I have the same problem/situation with my '69 wire-wheel car and cannot
>find anywhere a depiction of the oil seal for this model. All I found were
>two large o-rings and something rubber and disintegrated in the center of the
>axle hub. The paper gasket was missing. Do I need a oil seal or will the
>o-rings seal it altogether?
Shawn,
For a wire wheel car, when you take the brake drum off, you're looking at
the splined hub extension. Remove the one screw holding it on, pull the
axle out, and you'll see the wheel side face of the hub. Probably stuck to
this is a rubber O-ring and a paper gasket. The hub, the part left on the
car after the axle is pulled out, houses the oil seal and the bearing. The
hub retaining nut should be staring you in the face when you pull the axle
out. Just behind it is a washer, just behind the washer is the bearing
(you'll see the balls and the outer race, which is of larger diameter than
the washer. Behind the bearing, and probably not visisble, is the oil seal.
This whole assembly is shown in the Haynes and workshop manuals and the
Moss catalog.
The retaining washer and nut probably look beat up. The washer should have
a bit of it turned down towards you. This folded down tab is there to keep
the nut from turning. It can do this becasue the washer has a nub or key
that fits in the keyway of the axle. So, bend the washer tab back using a
dull chisel or somesuch. Remove the retaining nut. Most people don't have a
big enough socket, so they use the chisel on the nut. Hence it's probable
appearance in your car. The nut on the right (passenger side) is regular
right-hand thread. The nut on the left is left threaded!! Get the nut off,
pry the washer off, remembering that the side opposite the key should be
pried out first. Now the hub can be pulled.
I needed a puller to get the hub off the car. Once off, you can press out
the bearing using the puller reversed. Make sure that the bearing does not
show signs of being spun. It should be smooth, without scratches running
around the outer face of the outer race. If it has been spun, you may need
a new hub since the bearing seat may be too big now for a tight fit.
The oil seal should be plainly visible now. It is like two concentric
circles connected by a rubber face. The inner one is just a rubber lip, the
outer one is a metal ring covered in rubber. In the trough between the
inner and outer circles is a circular metal spring that squeezes the inner
circle around the axle. Getting the seal out is tough. I am in the process
of destroying one now by carefully prying it out with a screwdriver.
I do not have _two_ O-rings, just the one that sits between the hub and the
hub extension. Where are your two rings located? I'm guessing that the
"something rubber and disintegrated in the center of the axle hub" is
what's left of your oil seal. The bearing is lubricated by oil from the
differential traveling down the axle and into the hub. The oil seal keeps
oil from traveling back towards the differntial on the outside of the axle.
If it got past this seal, it would sling out onto the brakes shoes. The
O-ring keeps oil from slinging out of the hub into the space occupied by
the paper filter (ie, where the face of the extension and the hub meet). If
the O-ring is bad, oil will eventually saturate the paper gasket and then
get onto the brake shoes. If your brake drum or shoes are contaminated with
oil, I suggest replacing the O-ring, the oil seal, and the paper gasket.
Evidence of oil on the brakes is that the drum might have some oil in it
(mine had a lot) or the shoes might have a coating of flaky, sooting stuff,
which is what's left of gear oil after you get it real hot by squeezing it
between the shoes and drum over several thousand miles!
I have exactly ONE axle hub reconditioning under my belt, so take all this
with a large grain of salt, though I think it's fairly accurate. Actually,
I'm only halfway there as my bearing was spun in the distant past and
apparently "fixed" by addition of epoxy to the hub and outer race face. The
hub race seat also has little dots of something all over it, proabably more
epoxy, that was carefully dabbed on to fill the space created by a spinning
bearing. Has anyone ever heard of this being done? It worked for 7 years on
this car, and I'm not sure it won't work for another 7. OTOH, I have a
complete rear end under the house, so I'll probably just pull a hub off of
it tonight. FUN.
Hope this helps,
Jeff
Date: 26-Jan-1998 18:46:36
From:
Subject: Re: half shaft oil seal
Andy,
As near as I can tell, your last sentence says it all:
"I realize there's no problem once the wheel and lug nuts are on the car."
I think that that is the design goal of the rear hub. The lug nuts squeeze
the brake drum and hub extension (for wire wheels) or outer hub plate
(steel wheels) and paper gasket against the inner hub face. Yes, when you
remove the wheels, gear oil that is present in the hub, as it should be in
order for proper bearing lubrication, may dribble out of the hub/bearing if
your O-ring and paper gasket were jarred loose or are simply boogered up.
But, the oil should run in a straight line down to your waiting tennis
shoe, _just_ missing the trailing end of the leading shoe (or is that versa
vice)! Note that all of the differential oil will not leak out because the
axle tapers from the wide differential housing towards the narrow flange.
Thus, differential oil has to flow _uphill_ to get to the hub bearing. How
can oil ever get to the bearing then? Well, when you corner, some oozes all
the way out to the bearing due to centripetal force. This was how it was
explained to me, anyway. Must work, there's always oil there in the
bearings! (on my car, that is).
The real answer to "How come the axle shaft is only held on to the hub by
one small screw when the wheel is off the car?" is that BMC thought "why
use four when one will do?" On my car, the hub face is tapped for four
screws. Three of those holes were filled. I'll bet BMC at one time used
four and simply found that one was all that was needed in most instances.
Just a guess.
Hope this helps,
Jeff
>Jeff,
>
>You did a great job explaining rear hub component functions and
>refurbishment. I'm in the midst of re-doing the non-wire wheel hubs on my
>Bugeye. Your words are helpful.
>
>I have question, if you have a moment. How come the axle shaft is only held
>on to the hub by one small screw when the wheel is off the car? In other
>words, won't the gear lube leak out between the axle flange and the hub,
>after being driven and wheels removed? Is the paper gasket, O-ring and
>small screw enough to stop any leak? Do you use gasket goop on the paper
>gasket? (I realize there's no problem once the wheel and lug nuts are on
>the car.)
>
>Always wondered,
>Andy.
>'60 Bugeye
Jeffrey H. Boatright, PhD
Senior Editor, Molecular Vision
http://www.molvis.org/molvis
Mailto:jboatri@emory.edu
404-778-4113
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