I currently have the rear suspension disassembled on my 76 TR6 as part of
a total rebuild of the front and rear suspension and brakes (long
overdue!). I have the rear axle shaft and hubs out and I am trying to
determine if I did something stupid (it certainly wouldn't be the first
time). When I bench tested the rear hubs by rotating them, they turned
freely, quietly, and smoothly. Without using any gauges for measuring,
they didn't feel like they had any excess play in them. But they were
coated on the outside with many years of grease and grime so I (perhaps
unwisely) liberally sprayed the outer surfaces with carb cleaner and
cleaned them up with a brush. Now when I turn the shafts, I feel a slight
grittiness that wasn't there before. I suspect some of the carb cleaner
soaked into the inner workings where the bearings are. Now, I'm trying to
decide if I need to have the hubs rebuilt as a precaution. I may have
stripped some of the grease away from the bearings with the carb cleaner.
I don't want to reassemble everything and then have the rear hub bearings
overheat. The car has about 55K original miles on it, for what that's
worth. But, I think the age of the grease inside is more of a factor than
the miles. As far as I know, these hubs have never been opened up. Any
thoughts on this? Should I bite the bullet and get them rebuilt?
While, we're on the subject, if I do need to have them rebuilt, is there
anyone on the list that does this service well for a competitive price?
Victoria British currently has rebuilt hubs on sale for $149 each. I
could go that route (anyone have any knowledge of the quality of VB's
rebuilt hubs?). But, all things being equal, I would prefer to keep my
original hubs since I know their history and they have realtively low
miles and have never been abused to speak of.
Thanks,
Greg Hutmacher
Dallas/Ft Worth area
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