Wheel Bearings

Hi

Not much time to do things today but a bit of progress on the hubs, the roller bearings in the hubs (i have read) have a life of around 100,000 miles, so at 35,000 on the clock jut a clean, check, re-grease and re-fit.

The outer bearing is easy to remove and clean as it comes of with the removal of the hub, the inner roller is retained by the grease seal which has to be removed first. The book says to replace the seals after removal as they get damaged, I had no problem with the removal just a wide blade driver under the seal and it popped out, it was just a matter of cleaning out all the old grease and have a close inspection to ensure all is fine.

Hub bearing

Here are all the bits laid out, right to left are:- Grease seal, inner roller, outer roller, tab washer, nut, nut cap and split pin. There are 2 more parts to the bearing that I have not removed and these are the other half's of the two rollers. These only need to be removed if replacing the bearing as they need to be knocked out with a drift and may get damaged.

Hub inner bearing

You can see the 2 half's of the un-removed bearing in position on the cleaned hub.

I cleaned out as much of the old grease as I could and packed the inner race with new grease working it into the rollers as much as I could then slipped it in followed by the cleaned and checked grease seal. The hub is now fitted onto the stub shaft, the outer bearing is packed with grease and slid into position followed by the tab washer. 

Now comes the tightening, put the nut on and tighten by hand until the hub is positioned fully back, it is important that a little float is allowed in the hub to take into account of the expansion that will take place due to the friction heat created when driving. The Haynes manual says to tighten to 27 lb ft which is around 37Nm then to turn back 90 deg's to give the end float, unfortunately my torque wrench starts at around 50Nm so I had to use another method. Basically I just tightened with a shifter turning the hub constantly until the end float was lost then turned back 90 deg's. Give the hub a shake and the hub just moved around a mil which when on the road should take up to the correct tightness. I shall check again once the car has done a few miles.

Hub into position

I then fitted the nut cap and split pin, the cover is still wet from painting and shall fit tomorrow.

I have cleaned up the original disks, only a very small lip around the outer edge which I have ground off, sanded and cleaned the disc with brake cleaner and it looks in great condition.

There were 2 bearing manufactures used on the Cortina, Timken and Skefco, the bearings fitted on my 86 is Skefco.

SKF bearing

This is the outer bearing with the bearing i.d stamped on  SKF EK-LM11749, I am sure that if anyone requires the Timkin order number Terry at the panther club will have it or know's who has it.
Just need to fit the other hub, find some new nuts & bolts for the subframe to chassis fit the wheels and I will be able to have a rolling car, tomorrow i think.
See ya Paul