Thread: Wheel Bearing Hub nut size

Arrg! My error guys. ops: ops: ops: ops:

The wheel nuts are what I was on about, and are not 52mm.
Must be on drugs!!
Trev.

Originally posted by disconut
Arrg! My error guys. :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

The wheel nuts are what I was on about, and are not 52mm.
Must be on drugs!!
Trev.

Well, at least you gave us a bit of amusement. You are perhaps well advised to carry some heavy duty gear - about six months ago I got my wheels balanced - about a month later I got a flat, fortunately at home - it took a first grade 1/2" drive socket with three feet of pipe on the handle to loosen the nuts. I had a few words with the owner of the tyre business, and he told me that their policy is to use a torque wrench on wheel nuts, but he thought perhaps because of the large size of the Landrover wheel nuts his boys may have used the rattle gun used on trucks without resetting the torque.

After any tyre / wheel servicing, I recheck all the wheel nuts by backing them off and retensioning with my own tools. That way I know that all is well and I can get them off if I need to.
Trev.

Thanks for the info, one and all, to the wheel bearing nut size.

Out of curiosity what are peoples experiences with the average life cycle of the wheel bearings. I know and understand this depends on if they have been regularly maintained (and of course correctly done).

Any thoughts on the conversion of the housing to allow the diff oil to lubricate the bearings instead of grease.

As I side note I know too well of the results of a dealership doing the wheel nuts up with a rattle gun with the incorrect torque settings. I went to rotate the tyres on my new Falcon XG ute, and low and behold the stud snapped off with only slight effort. On closer inspection you could see the stress fracture. Took a lot of arguing with the dealership but eventually they replaced all wheel studs, but only after threats to go public concerning vehicle safety......

Cheers
JohnM

Few things effect bearing life of a Timkin taper bearing, lube,preload and transport of the car when the wheels aren't turning i.e on a ship, car carrier etc this can cause brinelling. I always set up bearings with a dial indicator to get them right, problem is most people don't have one. Next thing is with the set up on and LR where by there is nut and then a lock washer and then another nut is a problem. When you set the preload using the inner nut it ends up way out when you tighten the lock nut it ends up way out because of the slack in the threads, normally takes 3-4 goes to get it correct after tightening the lock nut. But one saving grace is that taper bearings actually like to be a little tight rather than a liitle loose according to the Timkin training course on how to set up bearings. As for lube the boys at MR reckon to leave the inner seals out and let oil in. What they reckon they have had best results with, is to pack the races with grease and leave the seals out, so if it runs out of grease the oil is there to keep it going, by their nature taper bearing pump lube though the taper and this is why they run out of lube.

Originally posted by JohnM
Thanks for the info, one and all, to the wheel bearing nut size.

Out of curiosity what are peoples experiences with the average life cycle of the wheel bearings. I know and understand this depends on if they have been regularly maintained (and of course correctly done).

(snip)
Cheers
JohnM

For what its worth, my 110 has the original bearings at 400,000km and 19 years, although several seals have been replaced. As far as I know, my 2a has the original wheel bearings on the front after 85,000km and 36 years (rear axle was replaced as the brakes needed doing and I had a new xomplete axle - it was easier!).

Yeah they shouldn't fail.

I was actually going to post a thread on how I don't have to adjust hub nut pre-load ever 6-12 months after converting to the RTC3511 seal and oil lubrication of the bearings.

Shaun, interesting that you use your dial indicator to set up the wheel bearings. Never thought of that, yet always used it when building diffs, etc. (sound of smacking forehead with hand )
Procedure used by Land Rover with the tension wrench, repeated several times seems to work OK.
As to the hub nut size, yep, my old Jeep one works fine, thanks very much