Hi Greg
>From what you describe you have contaminated the hubs with some of that grit
which would suggest that the seals are a bit ineffective. My advice would be
at the very least strip and clean and replace the seals, but then for the
cost of the wheel bearing kit which includes the seals and the collapsible
spacer why not rebuild them properly. The only real problem with diy is
getting the flange off to dismantle them (requires a lot of press force, or
a hydraulic puller like the Churchill tool listed), once they are in bits
they are much like front wheel bearings to do, drive out the old races and
press in the new ones. If you diy do yourself a favour and buy new lock tab
washers for the two big nuts as this will make setting the end float easier,
a well respected Triumph engineer told me to ignore the 0.002" end float and
aim for no float without pre-loading the bearings as this would achieve the
same end result after a few miles. It seems to have worked ok for me as the
rear wheel bearings are now on the second car with about 40,000 miles on
them. The other thing I did was to drill right through from the flange to
the cavity and fit a grease nipple, now every time I change the brake shoes
the bearings can have a shot or two of grease to refresh them! BTW the
fourth shot of grease pushes out the seals so only two at a time!
Graham
----- Original Message -----
From: <Greg_Hutmacher@i2.com>
Subject: TR6 rear hubs - how to determine if need rebuild?
> 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!). 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?
> Thanks,
> Greg Hutmacher
> Dallas/Ft Worth area
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