Heres how it is, I got some second hand hubs off a wrecked 89 ford laser, it is the earlier shape. Turns out that the drivers wheel bearing is well and truly chewed out and absolutely stuffed. The hub being stuffed too I will have to use the Mazda 121 hubs I have here which are the same.
Because the wheel bearings were so far gone so were the spacers between the bearings. I have the new bearing set and the shells have been put in place in the 'knuckle'.
What is the deal with these spacers! Because they were so chewed I do not have any originals to use. It seems that these wheel bearings are not as straight forwards as I'd like them to be! Advice would be appreciated on this matter as I feel a little out of my depth at this stage having not worked on these before. I am in Invercargill so any recommendations on who could help would also be appreciated but it is a bad time of year to get any work done I know!
panicky,
Dec 23, 9:28am
If you leave the spacers out, the new bearings will fail.
morrisman1,
Dec 23, 9:29am
I realise that which is why I need to do it properly
candy1213,
Dec 23, 10:48am
i have a few spare early hubs, from my old race car 1982 ford laser [early one.,
morrisman1,
Dec 23, 10:55am
That would be an earlier shape than the KE laser wouldnt it! Do you know if the hubs are the same! It would need the same brakes on there too as to swap the discs the hub needs to be pressed out and that is just inviting trouble!
clark20,
Dec 23, 11:04am
Nah the 82 were not vented the 86 was, I replaced the whole hub on my 82 sport with 86 ones.
morrisman1,
Dec 24, 6:40am
yea I definitely need the vented ones, Im just gunna slow down the pace and work through getting the preload right with the spacer. Rushing it will only end in bad decisions I think
morrisman1,
Dec 27, 8:44am
Righto, Ive nutted it out with the help of a homemade special service tool, the workshop manual and a bit of overheating of my brain, I almost blew a head gasket trying to work it out haha.
I have measured the preload at 1.4Nm with a number 12 spacer in there. Manual specifies the acceptable range as being 0.25NM to 1.18NM so I have to increase the spacer size. They say that each number is equivalent to 0.2-0.4NM change, so I plan on going to the dealership tomorrow to see if they have a number 14 spacer, that will bring the preload down to between 0.6 and 1.0NM, which is within the acceptable range.
Is this something that they would stock! Being a major dealership for mazda and ford and these bearing systems being used on all of mazda and ford's smaller cars in the 1980s they would be a relatively common item I would expect but you never know what they may neglect to stock.
mugenb20b,
Dec 27, 8:46am
Is there a possibility that you could just fabricate one, or modify the one you've got!
morrisman1,
Dec 27, 8:48am
to do that I would need a lathe and some fancy measuring equipment. I will investigate the option of purchasing one first, they may be dirt cheap. If I needed to make the spacer shorter then I could just shave mine down but seeing as it has to go 0.8mm longer I dont have that option.
morrisman1,
Dec 27, 9:24am
oops, its meant to be 0.08mm longer
morrisman1,
Dec 28, 12:08am
Righto, I made a shim out of some .005" shim steel and put it in there, tightened it up and it felt real good, not binding up or loose, Measuring it wasnt really necessary.
Pressed it together no probs and its back on the car. My handling problems have all been solved, it doesnt really torque steer or wander with these hubs on it so I am pretty stoked right now haha. Now just to do the steering alignment and extend the tierods so that there is plenty of range available. Looking at it, I think it needs to toe in a bit and I am about as extended as I can go on the standard tie rods.
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