Front Wheel Bearings - Dust Caps?

[revilla]

Right, the mystery deepens ...

Today I too the front hub apart and tried to put it back together as instructed. Firstly, the cups for the felt seals were not at all tight fit into the hubs as expected, just a light press in with fingers. Secondly, once it was all back together, the dust caps were the same ... completely loose! I can push them fully home with my fingers, spin them round and pull them out again. I can't leave them on like that, they won't stay put for a mile down the road ...

Which reminds me; when we originally collected the car from Caterham Midlands where it had apparently had a 12K service, about half a mile down the road there was a matallic ringing clang as though something had fallen off the car. I stopped and checked round, couldn't find anything and put it down to having run over something metallic, but looking back on it I reckon it was probably one of my dust caps parting company.

The seats for both the felt seal cups and dust caps don't look damaged at all, they haven't been enlarged through wear or damage as far as I can see. I'm not too worried about the seal cups, I'm pretty sure the cups and felt will still rotate with the wheel, but I don't know what to do about the dust caps.

Firstly the caps were not from Caterham but from a cheapo supplier so I suppose it's possible they are just poor and too small; having said that I'm now sure the originals were missing because they had fallen off and the picture on Caterhamparts website is absolutely identical to the ones I have, right down to the slight circular machining mark around the central hole, so I'm convinced they are identical.

My car was first registered in 2003 but I think some time was taken over building it and all of the parts on it are clearly "pre 2003" rather than the "2003 onwards" versions. I notice that the "Front Hub - Aluminium Uprated - Ford PCD" on Caterhamparts website states in the notes "used from 2003 onwards" - what hubs were used before this? Were they aluminium or cast iron as per the original Spitfire installation? It's just that my hubs are aluminium and of a rather different design with deep dished mouldings between the wheel studs. I'm just wondering if the builder may have used some different hubs which are off spec.

Other than changing hubs or going to the uprated stub axles (which for cost reasons I really don't want to do right now) the only things I can think of doing about it are i) using something like some kind of Loctite to secure them or ii) given the bearings don't seem to have suffered much in the last 20K miles, just leave them off.

Any further thoughts?

[Mankee]

Your hubs are identical to my old ones, i.e. made of aluminium, which I didn't expect, as I thought the upgraded bits would be stronger as well as lighter. There's a few hundred grams weight penalty, but it is worth it for the peace of mind of stronger bits. I'll have a look to see how my old parts came off. However, I think I just steamed into it and paid more attention to how the new parts should be fitted.

[Bio]

Can you make a narrow shim out of a beer can to ensure a tight fit between the dust cap and hub ....Best to run with some bearing protection .

 

John

[Englishmaninwales]

I used a centre punch to create a couple of small high points on both the felt seal carrier and dust caps.

[Paul Deslandes]

Could you not distort the dust caps by knocking them slightly 'out of round' or swaging them a bit so that they're a tight fit?  Mine have always been tight but the felt seals are a different matter and I've always had the same problem as you describe, but once they're in, they're held in place by the hub and, as you say, should turn with the hub.

Paul

[revilla]

Sorry I haven't been back with an update for a while after all your helpful suggestions.

 

Unfortunately I and the whole family have been completely incapacitated and bedridden with some awful flu virus for the last week. We haven't even done Christmas here yet :( so there hasn't been much done in the garage. I did try distorting the whole thing into a slight ellipse, the problem was that it was only then tight along one axis and rocked around the two points of contact; just by spinning the hub you could start to get it to walk loose. I think I'm going to go with the centre punch idea with maybe six equally spaced "indentations from the inside" around the rim next, when I feel up to working in a cold garage again.

 

PS: I now realise that my theory that they fell off and that I heard one of them going makes no sense. I have 10-spoke anthracites with centre caps and there's nowhere for them to go except rattle around in the centre of the wheel. Looking at it, that probably explains why the bearings didn't suffer too badly without the caps as they are fairly well sealed by the wheels anyway.

[revilla]

OK finally feeling well enough to go out to the garage again ...

I knocked six equally spaced little "pips" into the rim of each dust cap with a centre punch (they're made of much tougher stuff than I imagined, it takes quite a crack with hammer to put any kind of mark in them at all!) and they now appear to be a nice snug fit. I had to tap them into place with a hammer and they didn't want to come out again.

So front bearings are freshly greased, felt seals oiled, everything back together (this time hopefully the way it should be), wheels spin freely with no play, front end all spanner-checked - job done.

Thanks for all the support as always. Despite any gremlins with the forum, this is still a good place to be!

Wishing you all a safe, successful and happy 2015