Thread: Front hub maintenance.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

Just a tip for anyone that feels that their steering has a gotten a little vague, i was changing front pads on the weekend and noticed a little play in the hub bearings. Been on my mind to check them and re pack / re tension for a while and since i had the wheel off and on a stand thought it was a good time. Well i'm glad i did as the bearings were almost dry and the drive flanges were rusty and close to being seized on the axle , so pulled the hub off cleaned and checked the bearings before packing with as much grease as i could squeeze in there and then refitted and adjusted the bearing pre load back up and now its all nice and tight and steering is greatly improved - now just need to replace the panhard bushes as i still get a little wandering.

I would also check the radius arm bushes and the drop arm ball joint. Initially I found that drop arm ball joint had a bit of play and the boot was perished, so replaced it. This improved the steering somewhat but I still had some wandering.

I'd been waiting to do the radius bushes but was trying to decide if I would use castor correcting bushes. Well after finally getting them I replaced the bushes last week. Once I had the steering aligned I could really notice the difference. It really tracks well around corners and is stable going down the freeway.