Wilsons Sandbox

Re: [mg-tabc] Stub axles and king pins hi Tom - that much play can only come from the kingpin bushes! As Bob has pointed out, you [b]must[/b] use a piloted reamer: the bushes supplied are steel backed, with only a thin veneer of bronze (cost-cutting?) and if you get the reamer even slightly out of line, it takes all the bronze off one side down to the steel. Been there, done that!!! One thing I have noticed about the spacers is that they are all slightly different! Most come out at about 31mm, [b]but[/b] of course they should be the same as the distance between the shoulders inside the hub, and old hubs all vary a bit, whereas new ones seem to be [b]1.20" [/b](or 30.48mm - most dimensions on the hubs are in inches). If the spacer is too long, it will force the bearings off the shoulder and allow the hub to move. I bought two new spacers from Abingdon Spares, and they were different lengths, both wrong! So I now make my own to suit the hubs. As to the tapered bearings, I am just about to put spacers back in my hubs, after [b]many [/b] years of running without. The procedure for setting these up is a bit tricky, and best done off the car. Two snags have come to light though: due to the offset of 1.25mm in each bearing, the inner race of the outer brg. is moved 2.50mm towards the end of the stub axle, and is therefore not seated fully on the 20mm diam. portion of the stub. Also, the procedure of setting up, by adding or removing shims, means that the outer brg. has to be taken on & off several times, and each time it will get a little bit looser on the stub. We are getting in a supply of shims, but I have also made longer spacers. The correct units for torque are lbf. ft. (or Newton metres) but for the original stub axles the correct figure would be about 80 lbf. ft. and you should get the split pin hole to line up by taking a few thou off the back of the nut, rather than overtightening it. oc[b]T[/b]agonally TCRoger Tom Butler wrote:

[quote]Noticing some 12:00/6:00 wobble in my front wheels, and having read the postings with regard to the above some months ago, I finally got around to pulling my front wheel hubs off last night. The stubs appear good, no cracks or groves. The wheel bearings appear good as do the spacers. The castle nuts holding the wheels on were not very tight, I'd say 36 ft lbs. If someone could repost the comments re: fitting the front hubs and bearings I would appreciate. I seem to recall that it was suggested that the castleated nuts should be very tight, say 124 ft/lbs. When grasping the stub axles and wiggling about and 1/8 of an inch of up and down play was noted at the king pins. I intend to fit new thrust washers to the king pins. I will fit new king pins with their associated bushings and felt washers as needed. Someone was making front stub axles suitable for fitting tapered roller bearings on without the necessity of careful fitting of spacers. I would be very interest in contacting this person. I would also appreciated any comments from any person who has tried these aftermarket stub axles.

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