Front Stub Axles, Wheels and Brakes

I managed to fit one of the new stub axles today, properly bleeding that side’s brakes in the process. I also got the hub refurbished with new seals and gaskets – the Timken bearings remained as they have only covered about 2000 miles from new.

I only started at close to midday due to other jobs around the house, but quickly lost three hours due to the wheel bearings not fitting the new stub alxles – they’re slightly different to the original stub axles with raised bearing seats and a larger oil drain slot at the bottom of the flange. The bearing seats seemed to be an interference fit on the bearings. I took the old stub axle (whose worn bearing seats and slightly pitted seal land are visible in the photo), the free bearing and both new stub axles to a local engineering shop to have them ground a little. After a while, we found that the bearings did fit, but only if the slid on exactly square – the tolerances are much tighter than normal. This meant that no machining was done and that the new stub axles should last considerably longer than the originals managed.

With the old stub axle removed, I turned the brake backplate over and, with the drum loosely fitted to prevent the pistons coming out of their bores, bled the brake assembly by using a tube with a non-return valve and pedal pumping. By having the backplate lay this way, it puts the cylinder unions at the top of the air pocket. This is the only way to completely purge the twin leading shoe system.

The mating faces for the the stub axle, swivel, hub, drive flange and drum were all cleaned up. The hub and drive flange were resprayed and fitted with a new seal. The whole assembly was then reassembled with new gaskets and seals throughout and packed with grease. The hub was given another few good coats before painting both sides of the wheel spacer with copper grease and fitting with Locktite on the spacer’s wheel nuts.

A refurbished wheel was then fitted. You can see the incresed offset and how well the wheel now fills out the wheelarch. By this point, time was running out, so the other side will be done tomorrow, weather permitting. It should take about two hours.