Airhead front wheel hub trouble: need advice

[backdrifter]

I'm rebuilding a '73 R60/5. I recently rebuilt the wheels and when I threw them back together, I found some play in the front wheel. I disassembled the wheels again and found play between the bearing outer races and the hub. I hadn't noticed this during assembly. I had taken the hubs to an auto machine shop to have the bearing races pressed out. I now know that the hubs needed to be heated before the races were removed. I think the inner bore of the hub was damaged and is too large for the bearing races now.

The question is, what can I do about this? The hub has been powder coated and laced to the wheel - so I'd much rather not replace the hub.

Is it possible to bore out the ends of the hub to accept a slightly larger bearing OD with the same ID and thickness?

Is it possible to machine out the hub entirely and install a sleeve?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Jon-Lars]

Is the spacer in place? Did you re-shim it when you replaced the bearings?

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by Jon-Lars

Is the spacer in place? Did you re-shim it when you replaced the bearings?

Sorry, I'm bad at the BMW wheel lingo. I believe all spacers are in place and correct. I did the rear the same and it is fine. By re-shim, do you mean change the wedding band thickness? No, I did not.

When I remove the 5 bolt end cover and then place the axle through the hub and push it up and down, I can see the outer race moving in the bore.

When I shake the mounted wheel side to side there is just a small "click" of movement, but it is definitely there.

[Big Bamboo]

Unfortunately, you have a "spun" hub. If it's really loose, you can try and find some long feeler gauges and use one of them as a shim (old VW trick) I've also heard of a guy who used a sharp punch to make a series of marks all around the bore surface. He claims it's still holding strong after many miles... Either of these "fixes" will just be temporary until you find another hub.

[backdrifter]

Thanks Big Bamboo. You're becoming quite the helper on my build!

Well, thats certainly not what I wanted to hear, but at least I know. I've read some other threads and I think I'll try the center punch method combined with some Loctite 609. If that doesn't work, I found the thread below showing than Woody's Wheel Works may be able to offer a repair.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...highlight=Spun

[disston]

There is info in the link I'm giving you. This is a guy in Oz and I have his email address but I don't know him;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/whal457wil...hub_sleeve.doc

There is a sleeve shown that should be what is needed.

[pommie john]

I had the same thing happen to my rear hub. The outer races had spun in the hub and were loose.

I found a guy here id Brisbane who had lathe big enough to take a whole wheel so I didn't have to un lace the rim.
he bored it all out and installed a steel sleeve.
Cost a couple of hundred dollars about ten years ago.

[Houseoffubar]

A half thousandths or so can be made up with a little red loctite, to tighten the race in the hub.

[M37cdn]

Minty flavored green loctite is best for press fit repairs also known as 640 sleeve retainer
After you set the bearing race in with that stuff you are FOR SURE going to need heat to ever get it out again

[Airhead Wrangler]

Buy a roll of shim stock and try to make it tight again.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/PRE...im-Stock-3L432

[backdrifter]

I love this site. Thanks for all of the replies. First thing I'll do tomorrow is take a feeler gauge to the gaps between the races and the bore and try to figure out exactly how much I'm dealing with, and then come up with a plan from there. So far I really like the center punch and loctite idea.

[Wirespokes]

One of the reasons this is a touchy fix, is the bearing needs to be centered so it's concentric with the brake drum. A pulsing brake could be the result - and we all know the problems /5s have with grabby brakes first stop when they're damp!

pommie john's solution is the best, and the first I'd heard of anyone fixing one of these spun bearings.

[bmweuro]

If you just re-assembled the front hub the bearing is not spun and you do not need to do any hammering or shimming. Simply take the bearings out and find something that is a couple thousands smaller than the bearing race and tap the race inward to make sure the races are seated all the way down. I use an old bearing race I ground down on the out side. Once the races are fully seated your wobble will be gone.

[backdrifter]

Thanks bmweuro. I'll try tapping the outer bearing race in a bit further to see if that's the issue. I don't think it is though, and I don't think I was clear on what I think happened to the hub. The last bearing wasn't spun, but I think the machine shop did the equivalent to the hub.

Basically, I brought the hub in and asked them to press the bearing races out. My fault - I should have known that the hubs needed to be heated. When I got the hubs back, one looked like it had been honed or cleaned up on the inside. I now suspect they damaged the bore removing the race and then cleaned it up, but while doing so, they increased the bore by too much. It looks like I got lucky with the rear hub, as the same thing did not happen there.

So, while the bearings never "spun", I'm in the same situation. I installed the entire stack at temperature (put the hubs in my oven and pulled them out at 210F). As I said, when I put the axle through the wheel and move it up and down, I can see the outer race moving in the bore. Not good. Later today I'll go out to the garage and try some more. I'll first try tapping the race further in. If that doesn't work, I'll use a feeler gauge to determine what kind of a gap I'm dealing with, and then will go from there.

Thanks to all!

[bmweuro]

I guess I missed the part about the race loose in the hub. I'm assuming when you installed the pack that it was slipped onto the axle with a piece of pipe make up the difference in axle length and the washer and nut torqued down?