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My first hub rebuild

Chris

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Guys, not a technical post this one so no pics. It has been done to death in other places, but would value any opinions. They say that there are no stupid questions - odd how many inquisitive idiots there are are there, though.

So, drained diff. Raised each side and tipped axle to get full drain. Oil looked fair. No sludge at all, oil still translucent as it ran out.
Wheel off, caliper off, loosened hub bolts just in case I was going to strip hub fully, removed dust cap loosened cone nuts - ahh. One missing. Replaced with flanged nut of unknown origin and spanner size. Clearly a professional job.
One tap, cap off. Easy.
The two 54 mm nuts looked as though that had survived an attack from medieval weaponry. Lord know what fate had befallen them.
Question - it had one nut, then the tab washer and then the other nut. The tab washer was b****** and had some tabs bent back and one forward. What's the right configuration for these and the tab washer please?

Circlip off
Outer bearing fell out and looked really tidy. No issues that I can see. Not much grease in there and it looked more like moly than bearing grease.
Hub off, the inner oil seal stayed on the shaft! No matter how I tried to put it back into the hub it just didn't seem like it was the right one. WTF?
Inner bearing too looks good.
No evidence of any new gaskets. Everything looked jiggered and in places not even complete. Stubby came of fine with evidence of more 16 year old gasket.
Now the CV looked very clean and new. Well certainly not covered in grease anyway. I don't think that the grease has escaped - I don't think there was any. This looks like a real amateur night to me. Axle oil seal tired, but when slipped onto the shaft it wasn't a really bad fit.

OK, big bath of Jizer and a stipple brush, under the hub and it's bathtime. Got the hub down to the original black paint. All nuts, bolts and fitting looking very sharp. No rust anywhere. Will slacken trunnion bolts one at a time and locktite them tomorrow.

I have had the swivel every which way I can and cannot detect any movement or play at all. It all feels solid, smooth and nicely adjusted so I am not going to pranny with it. The rear wiper seals do seem to be doing a good job of wiping. Now I know that oil was pouring out of them, but they aren't oil seals are they? They need to keep grease in and dirt out. To my eye they looked good all round.

Now get this. The end of the drive shaft - where it goes into the diff had PTFE wound around it! Yes PT EFFING EEE. This bloke should have STUCK to plumbing.

Moving on. No, dammit not moving on PTFE? What in the name of all that is Holy .... :roll: :roll:

OK calm.

The CV, to me, looks fine. It was devoid of real lubrication but when cleaned up and rotated it felt smooth and tight. Not stiff - but sort of well, right. It would stay at any angle that I set it at. No flopsy in it. Please don't tell me that's the first sign of it being boogered.

The ABS sensor has met with extreme violence at some point. The bracket looks like a crumpled toffee wrapper and the sensor has had the top chopped off like your breakfast egg. The securing bolt had been sheared off in the top of the hub. OK brace yourself I'm going in.
Then, a miracle happened. The heavens opened and a shaft of light came down and shone all around. I centre-punched the stud and started to drill very slowly. THE STUD TURNED. I kept drilling until the stump dropped out into the swivel. Tomorrow I shall visit the temple and give praise. (The Temple is our local kebab shop, but you get the idea - yes?)
I had to recover all of the threads in the swivel housing. I think that the bolts had been jammed up, not crossed but dirty and forced. There were bits of swarf in them and they needed a full rethreading with my kit. The bolts will get some love tomorrow. Got a backing plate seeing as how the original had gone walkies. I suspect that they forgot it and though sod it, not taking all that lot off again.

It's all cleaned up, Jizered, wire brushed, brake 'cleaner-ed' and dried off. Reassembly tomorrow.

A huge thanks goes out to Mr Rubie who helped me out with the best hub First Aid kit a boy could want. What a star. He's a God.

So my English chums, if anyone has any observations, stick em on now. Cos at about 7 tomorrow, I shall be knocking and banging.

I have checked the diff breather and it seems clear on the front, but it seems to go through some sort of box affair. What's that bit all about?

Chris
 
Chris said:
Question - it had one nut, then the tab washer and then the other nut. The tab washer was b****** and had some tabs bent back and one forward. What's the right configuration for these and the tab washer please?....
Chris, I did mine last year. The above sounds right (apart from the buggered bit).

As the first nut onto the shaft is only torqued up very lightly you need to fit a NEW tab washer and bend a couple of tabs backwards, then when the outer nut is fitted bend another couple of tabs outward.

Make sure you have a 54mm box spanner ;)
 
It's not unusual for the hub nuts to be in a state Chris, they're often turned with a hammer and chisel when there isn't a 54mm socket handy! The lock washer is supposed to have at least one tab bent over each nut so in both directions is correct. There should have been a thrust washer between the inner nut and the outer bearing?

EDIT: Maybe the PTFE started off further down the shaft, like by the oil seal end? I've used tape wrapped round the splines to get a depth reading for doing the martack mod but I can't think why else you'd do that!
 
Urm PTFE. Thats a new one!

diff breather - if not done drill that little puppy out to 5mm

sounds all good otherwise. bet the trucks enjoying the Chris loving its getting. and i bet the hub will appreciate the grease too
 
Thanks Guys. Yes have 54 mm socket. Would have been difficult to have got the hub to bits without it. ;)

In a past existence, I built my own engine for my mini. Bored out to 1293, 12G295 (and a 12G2940) head, skimmed. Double valve springs, fast road cam, central oil pick up, twin SUs, water heated inlet maniold etc. So have plenty of tools in the garage. Been doing this stuff for a long time, but there is always something new. I am new to 80s but not new to vehicle mechanics. Been really looking forward to getting this hub to bits. Never done one before. Well now I have. It's quite complex in there. It has to do a lot. Not sure that it is the strongest point of an 80.

Couldn't have done it without you help. Should go back together OK and then I shall fill the tank and go out in it!

Chris
 
Chris, sounds like you're on the right track ;) Bummer that all isn't going as easily as it might, but then you're not a newbie with the spanners, so you'll be ok :mrgreen:
I'll try to add my modest experience of doing this job before...

Chris said:
So, drained diff. Raised each side and tipped axle to get full drain. Oil looked fair. No sludge at all, oil still translucent as it ran out.
Sounds good - clearly the oil is fairly new and the inner axle seals are doing their job... or the lack of grease means there's nothing to cloud your diff-oil :twisted:

Chris said:
Question - it had one nut, then the tab washer and then the other nut. The tab washer was b****** and had some tabs bent back and one forward. What's the right configuration for these and the tab washer please?
Some back and some forwards are correct. You're trying to stop the nuts undoing and to maintain your preload via the hubnut, so locating the lock washer on 2 separate places hopefully keeps things tight/located,

Chris said:
Hub off, the inner oil seal stayed on the shaft! No matter how I tried to put it back into the hub it just didn't seem like it was the right one. WTF?
Is the inner seal an OEM one (presume you have spares from Ian to compare with)? I tried the Milner one, which is just rubber without the metal shell and it does not fit well. I could easily believe that the Milner one would cause problems like this. Go OEM here!

Chris said:
Now get this. The end of the drive shaft - where it goes into the diff had PTFE wound around it! Yes PT EFFING EEE. This bloke should have STUCK to plumbing.
:shock: :shock: :shock: What do you think the PTFE was doing? Crude attempt to keep the diff oil in the diff?

Chris said:
The CV, to me, looks fine. It was devoid of real lubrication but when cleaned up and rotated it felt smooth and tight. Not stiff - but sort of well, right. It would stay at any angle that I set it at. No flopsy in it. Please don't tell me that's the first sign of it being boogered..
Sounds about right ;) Flopsy means wear. When you take the cage out and clean it all up (if you're doing this) you'll see how much wear there is in the "bell" and if the cage is tired. But your description sounds encouraging!

Good luck with the rest!

Cheers,
 
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Chris said:
Thanks Guys. Yes have 54 mm socket. Would have been difficult to have got the hub to bits without it. ;)
The socket isn't necessarily needed for the strip down, just the rebuild ;)
 
Have full box of OEM spares at the side of me. Enough for a complete axle and hub rebuild. Right down to cone nuts. New hub seal looks very different to the one that came off. I shall be cleaning that all up tomorrow. It's actually going well, all cleaned out and ready. Nothing bad gone on really. Just been done really badly.

Edit
True Paul - maybe But 54mm socket WAS necessary. Couldn't get the nuts off without it. I didn't embark on this with out being prepared. Couple of gaps in knowledge which you have all filled for me now. And, I shall be putting CV grease in the CV and bearing grease in the bearings and oil in the axle and petrol in the .. Oh hang on, nearly got me there. :lol:


Chris
 
Chris said:
Have full box of OEM spares at the side of me. Enough for a complete axle and hub rebuild. Right down to cone nuts. New hub seal looks very different to the one that came off. I shall be cleaning that all up tomorrow.
A man after my own heart - big fan of having things to hand "just in case" :mrgreen:
If the hub seal is a hard rubber jobbie with no metal, that's the Milner one. :twisted: Caused me similar problems - wanted to grip the spindle rather than sitting tight in the hub like its supposed to and then spat the little spring out and things went pear-shaped... :evil:
 
That sounds like it. I think tis' been done on the cheap. Odd vehicle, some owners have lavished care upon it (cruise control, immobiliser etc) and others have done a complete money saving bodge. It has had a repair on the rear window, I found a patch spot welded in where it always rust. Absolutely no sign form the outside. Professional respray I am sure. Just working through it bit by bit. Might even see if I can get the two small dents in the door pushed out.
Chris
 
Chris said:
Might even see if I can get the two small dents in the door pushed out.
Nooooooooo don't do it! Next thing you know you'll be waxing it :lol:
 
I know Jon. Next thing I shall be ripping a end plate off the bumper or smashing a rear light cluster. We've all done it. But I would like this one t be nice. For a bit.

C
 
Well boys that was a mammoth day. Started at half 7. In short, building up the swivel part went well. I have restored just about every thread on it. Some were quite badly mauled. The end of the stub axle where the lock nuts go on looked fine as did the nuts, but when I took them off (using the socket) they were tight at the end. Couldn't get the new nuts on at all. The end of the tube wasn't square so the nut wouldn't go on flat. That took me an hour to hand file it back to square, re cut the threads and work the new nuts on. What a kerfuffel. CV took a half tub of grease, worked that in well. Oil seal went in a treat with Mr Rubies oil seal presser-inner. Pretty smooth really, only packed the hub about 3/4 full as per the majority view on the net.

ABS sensor went in ok with new bolts etc. I now have ABS again. Oh yes. Very happy about that. Wiring plug looks a little weak, may have to support that somehow with a collar.

Then (music from Jaws in background) I started on the hub. Blimey. Someone had deffo been in there before me. I really think that the story here was that someone wanted to do a CV and bearings. Not really being a mechanic, they set about it with what they had. They put in a new CV and some bearings and that was that. No new seals or anything. Including grease really. They had bashed the old bearings out with an iron fence post I think. The inside of the hub looked like a shark's mouth with cuts and welts everywhere. Still, the bearings seemed OK. I greased it all up inside and then came to fit the rear seal. After an hour I rang the Land Cruiser Emergency Help desk. A very kind gentleman described what the hub should look like and how the seal should fit. Final analysis revealed that I didn't appear to have all of the hub that I should have. The outer wall of the hub ran to a tapered lip instead of being a straight wall. In other words there was nothing for the new seal to fit into. Whether this was from wear with incorrect adjustment or as a result of the raping that it got when removing the outer races I don't know. So I managed to get the old rubber seal back in for now, rebuilt the hub using cleaned up parts. Pre-load went well, all smooth. Locked it up, cleaned the gallon of axle oil off the brake discs and went for a spin. Feels great actually. Sunroof open, engine barely ticking over.
Inspection on return revealed a very smooth light film of dark grey grease on the swivel ball ends. No dripping oil, nothing too hot or binding; in fact all looks good.


Boys - I like it!!

Chris
 
Well done! Always a good feeling knowing that everything is new and has been done CORRECTLY :mrgreen: And you also have a sense of confidence knowing that if/when you have to go back in there, the bolt aren't cross-threaded and no real horrors await!
If decide you want a replacement rubber hub seal, instead of OEM, you know where to go :cool:

Reading your post makes want to go out for spin in my 80 right now :mrgreen:
 
We're just about to go out for a beer. First time we've been out in it as a family. May even convince the Missus to drive it back. Getting down to piddly bits on the list now and then I can get stuck into the modifications.

Yes, I still need to rebuild the hub again, but at least I don't have to go into the axle. That bit is sorted. (For now!)


So, just need a hub casting now.

Chris
 
Sounds good Chris. I just wish I undersood half of all the techie stuff you post :roll:
 
Well done Chris, at least you know what's in there now :)
 
whats this inner oil seal presser you speak of? took me ages to get mine in, and out :roll:
 
Thanks Jon. Yep, got it.


Rob oil seal seating too was loaned, but I have seen then on tool sites though. Sort of a drift handle with interchangeable discs on the end to suit every size. Velly good.

Ian, where's it from????


C
 
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