Wheel Bearing Tutorial

mcrover · 14th September 2008, 05:46 PM

Due to great demand........I have returned this to the forum.

Mods please close it

I took these photo's a while back when I did the wheel bearings, Rotors and pads on Casper (97 Disco 1).

If your half handy on the spanners and have a decent set of tools then it's not a bad job but don't attempt it if your not sure or you don't have the correct tools as you could damage your vehicle and make it dangerous to drive.

I will not be held responsible for any thing that happens to you or your vehicle and you should use this as a guide only.

The theory is pretty much the same for most of the rover stuff until the D2 and not taking into account for drum brakes but the axle set up I think is much the same.

Tools used

Bearings and seals

Remove split pins and withdraw retaining pins and springs (on the rear it is very similar just with locating plates rather than springs).

Gently with firm force with a lever (or big flat screw driver/tyre lever etc) squeeze the pads apart just enough to with draw them.

These pads were Ferrodo and were the noisiest pads Ive ever had so I replaced them with Bendix pads along with new rotors.

Remove the caliper by undoing the 2 13mm 12 sided bolts to the rear of the caliper (best to use a 1/2" drive breaker bar as these are tight and should be located and done up FT when refitting.

Remove rubber boot on drive flange

Remove circlip (easy with circlip pliers, I wouldn't bother trying to remove it in 1 piece any other way so if you don't carry circlip pliers, carry spare cir clips as you can split them easily with a screw driver and hammer.

Remove drive flange retaining bolts

With a gentle tap (depending on how much silicone is on it), remove the drive flange

Now carefully straighten out the nut retaining plate with a pin punch or cold chisel and hammer

2 methods of removing the retaining nuts, I prefer the socket but I have used the cold chisel method a few times with success (and failure).

Once you've removed the nuts, retaining plate and washer it pretty much should all fall off pretty easily and you can inspect the bearings.

These ones obviously didn't have much life left in them due to a bit of water ingress from the rear seal and not enough lubrication but they had no play.

Knock out the inner cone and seal with a pin punch and then knock out the shells inner and outer

Grease up bearings, this is my auto greaser which is great but just pack them well by hand if you don't have the toys, this just makes it cleaner

Probably not the correct method of installing shells as you really should keep them square but if you line them up properly and tap around different spots then they go in pretty easily but you can use the old shell to seat them which is better practice than this.

Install greased up inner bearing cone and seal.

With the seal it is really important to keep it from bending so it seals properly around the edges so use the old shell to seat that too.

Now the seal should sit just inside the housing by about 1mm or just where the bevel stops

I like to lube up the stub before installation of a new seal to help it slide on nicely but I have heard people say that it promotes leaks so it's up to you.

In Hydraulics we always lube shafts etc before install so I just use that theory with all this sort of thing.

Fill the centre with grease as well, at this stage you cant have enough grease in there, if there is grease in there then there is no room for water.

Refit outer bearings, washer, inner nut (thicker one), retaining plate and the outer nut and bend over the edge of the retaining plate to secure the nuts.

When refitting the drive flange add copious amounts of silicone to the sealing surface and slide it on and line it up then use a bolt in the centre of the axle and pull it out so you can reinstall the circlip.

A medium loctite on the bolts is a good thing I think and these need to be done up to a specific torque Ive been told, I did them up 1/2 a turn (by hand with a breaker bar) from nipped with the rattle gun but look up the torque setting or someone will post it under this post no doubt.

Refitting the brakes is the reverse of the dis assembly just remembering to squeeze the pistons out to fit new pads in but if your putting the old ones back in the caliper should still be ok.

Remember after having the pads out you need to seat them before they will work so pump them a few times before taking off anywhere.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

its only ment to be a low strength locker on the hub flange bolts and then its a 50/50 split between also having a split washer on each of the bolts. loctite 242 is as tough as you want to go

70nm for the hub flange bolts....

IF you do have to use the chisel trick you HAVE to check the bearing tension after 50Ks by removing the hub again and then again at about 1000km. The reason is that as your driving the chisel into the mild steel nut it expands at the impact point and when you re-assemble these can compress out under the force applied by the bearings while you drive. This leaves you with loose bearings.

as for copious amounts of sealant a 3mm bead around the inside edge of the flange lip is more than enough

another trick for breaking the flange seal is to leave the vehicle in gear and after youve undone the bolts retaining the flange with the opposite wheel held put a pry bar between a stud and the hub center and then turn the hub, the flange will stay still on the axle. once youve got it free line up the bolt holes with the studs, wind a wheel nut most of the way on and then lever the flange off using the wheel nut as your pivot.

Originally Posted by justinc

Good pics and words Damo,

BUT,

I would like to add that genuine 'Corteco'RTC3511 are the best ones as they too have an inner and an outer lip, and are the OE specification for early RRC's with oil lubed hubs. They need to be inserted so that the outer lip is flush with the outer of the hub, run a straight edge across the hub to test. Also, the drive flange is a very handy tool to insert the seal with, the locating ring to the hub is the perfect size. I have an old drive flange with the locating rim lathed down to the correct seal insertion height so I just tap it in until it stops on the hub outer surface.

It's all I use now on all defenders , discos and RRC'c that use these hubs etc.

JC

mcrover · 14th September 2008, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by mike 90 RR

Thank's for that McRover

Luv how your showing the plastic shields to the sides of the bearing to retain & help pack in the grease Auto matic grease packer, cost about $8 at Bearing Wholesalers

The RRC 1990 has a slight different set up in the way of
No metal "dust cap's" on the center of hub .. but has the "End of axle" torque bolted to the Hub
You are showing the "Front set" of a "grease setup" where as RRC90 has a stub axle in oil filled CV swivel ... Hence some confusion for some Yeah Ive never had anything much to do with the Rangie stuff but as I said, under the skin they are pretty much the same thing as far as I know

But the theory is the same

Don't blame you for a disclaimer tho ...

The amount of grease you pack in tho .... will always be a point of topic and a personal choice .... ask 3 mechanics and get 3 different answers

Your right tho, Pack it full ... no room for water
Down side is ... it also retains heat and the grease can fail

So chose the right grease for the job .... your using High Temperature Red grease in the photo's???Wynns grease, cant remember off hand what it's name is but it is great stuff.

Mike

As far as the greasing and my reasoning around it, no matter how hot it gets it isnt going to boil all the grease away if it is pretty much full, it's going to keep water out and it shouldnt be getting hot enough to burn the grease anyway, that means that your running the wrong grease and there is too much friction causing heat to build up.

This Wynns grease that I use (as does just about every other golf course that I know) saves the bearings in our rollers on our mowers on the golf course which run in water, dew etc a lot of the time and then in dry dusty conditions just hours later when the course dries out.

Ive tried a couple of Castrol and Shell greases and they didnt come close to the Wynns one, even Wurth dont do a grease that can stand up to the punnishment that we put the grease through.

I dont go over the top with grease on the machines either, I fill them up on rebuild and then a pump or 2 at 50hrs service.

Im planning on pulling the hubs off again about the same time next year and regrease because Im not confident with the seals I used but they will do for now.

Cheers

mcrover · 14th September 2008, 06:13 PM

I was also asked to include some information on preloading the bearings and checking for heat.

As far as Preloding goes,

Step 1. I normally just use the socket by hand to take up the slack and then put about 1/4 turn on past contact.

Step 2. Give the hub a spin to make sure it's not sitting crooked or something stupid like that and feel for tight spots and then just a little nip and then lock it up with the lock washer and lock nut.

Step 3. Put it all back together and the wheel back on and give it a slow turn to feel any rough spots and it spins easilly but not have any movement at all in the bearing.

Step 4. Once the rest is all done and youve done a bit of a test drive 5 to 10kms then feel the drive flange, it may be a little warm due to braking but it shouldnt be hot, if it is then you will need to back the bearings off a bit.

If youve done Step 3 and it all feels good then you should be ok.

I cant explain it any better than that as I do it more by feel but Dave or JC or someone else in the know may be able to fill in any gaps.

As far as checking your wheel bearings goes, you should probably pop the drive flange off at least once a year and maybe more if you drive through a lot of water or mud.

You should probably check for bearing movement about once every month or two but the best sign is if it starts to wander a bit it generally means that the bearings are getting loose.

I used a Wynns grease (this time, last time I did it at my mates workshop and I used his grease) which has really good resistance to water washout which is what happened with that hub.

If anyone has any tecniques PM me and I will post it up, I only would like to do it this way to keep this post clear of rubbish that doesnt belong in here.

I will post it "As posted by" so people know who posted it.

Anyone who wishes to abuse me over it, do it in a PM and dont expect a response.

Mods if there are other posts in this thread that are not related to the subject please delete them.

mcrover · 14th September 2008, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by p38arover

I thought that was the way to install them, too. However, I read a thread recently which suggested they should be driven about 4mm below the hub.

I'd heard that as well but the seals I was using dont have such a big lip on them

Originally Posted by mark2

I've heard conflicting versions also. I've got oil filled hubs and they havent leaked yet, so I must have done something right......(cant remember whether I put them in flush or below so thats no use to anyone!)

Originally Posted by justinc

Correct, 4mm below for the main body of the seal Ron, the outer seal lip of the RTC3511 will then be about flush with the hub.

JC

**Blknight.aus** · 14th September 2008, 07:47 PM

if you get it all right you dont need to do the preload.

the original spec for the bearings was with 5-10 tho of endfloat so there was no preload
they then went to a bit of preload
now they run at 0 preload and 0 endfloat which is what the new stupid spacer and stake nut is supposed to maintain.

with all regards to how its been posted up near as damnit its how I do it but I do the final adjust with a bit more detail, ive covered it before but here is my final sequence for the adjustment

DO NOT try this if you are chiseling you must use the correct hub nut spanner. try this with a chisel and you will make a hash of it.

tighten the first nut up as tight as you can get it by hand then tighten it up with about 2 foot of leverage as tight as you can get it.
rotate the hub 3 times forwards and 3 times back
undo the nut
tighten the nut up till it just contacts (thats a by feel thing)
place on the lock washer
place the outside nut on and do it up to 50nm
respin the hub and check for play/binding, if youve got it wrong start again
fold the lock washer.
complete as per the first post

once youve got the wheels on do the 50km wheel nut retention thing and at the same time lift the wheel and check its rotation again for binding/rim rock.

recheck at 1000Km.

with regards to the depth of the seal. in a pinch it doesnt matter so long as the lip sits on the seal surface it will seal unless one or the other is damaged or you dont seat the seal correctly.

I use the seals with the wiper lip on them and press them in untill the wiper lip is about .5mm proud of the hub. I also pack it liberally with grease

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