[ihc] Check your old hubs

["James Lidberg" <jameslidberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have been hearing a strange sound from the front right of my '79 Scout, usually only when in 4LO offroad.

The wheel spun just fine and there was no play, but I decided to pull the right front hub and axle apart to see if 
anything needed attention.

My first tip off was the presence of water and rusty red grease inside the hub.

The races of both the inner and outer wheel bearings were so hot they burnt the grease and discolored the spindle and 
the inside of the hub as if a torch burnt them past red hot, then cooled.

The inner bearing would not come off so I cut it with a Dremel cut off wheel, removed the cage and rollers, cut the 
inner race, and cracked it with a 2LB hammer and chisel, spread it apart with a screw driver and pryed it off.

I removed and cleaned the spindle. It was blackened and looked like the inner bearing either rusted or spun on it. I 
cleaned up an old spare, assembled the axle and spindle back in place.

While cleaning the inside of the hub I noticed a crack in the inside. Upon closer inspection I saw 2 cracks directly 
opposed, and almost all the way to the inner and outer edges. If they had gone further and deeper the hub literally 
would have fallen apart into two pieces. The metal looked like it had been work hardened with many small crazed surface 
cracks all around the deep ones. It looks like radial forces on the wheel was making the hub spread apart at the 
cracks.

The funny thing is that the rollers were all in good shape as were the bearing surfaces of the races, and the grease 
around the rollers was OK too.

They were Timken bearings.

A few more miles at 70 miles freeway driving and I would have had melted bearings, the wheel would have fallen off too.

The spare hub is a bit rusty on the outside so it is being cleaned by electrolysis right now.

- Jim in Mesa
**************
Jim In Mesa - James Lidberg
jameslidberg@domain.elided
'79 Scout II/4X4/345/Edelbrock 1400/727/D20/3.07 open/PS/PB/4"Trailmaster
Copyright 2004 All rights reserved