Front wheel bearings

[Tom Endy]

I have heard there is a supplier that markets repair races for the front hubs. The repair scheme is to machine out the race seat inside the front hub to allow either an oversize race or a repair sleeve to be inserted so that the race is tight inside the hub. If anyone knows anything about the subject I would appreciate hearing about it.

Tom Endy

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Tom, I have looked at repairing this too however the biggie for me was a place to "pick-up off of" when indexing it up in the lathe. Also, the price of the new hubs has made it not efficient for me to pursue restoring original ones that had a spun race.

[modeladan]

I have my fronts and rears off and I also have a race that is spinning. How do you guys fill about swelling the hob with a punch, I have done that on other cars and trailers in the past.. Or how bout JB weld to stick them in place.

[darrylkmc]

I have had good success using Loctite Sleeve Retainer, if they are not too far gone. I have a couple that have been in service for more than 20 years that I used Sleeve Retainer on. Be sure and follow the Manufacturers instructions.

Darryl in Fairbanks -51 F. this morning

[larrys40]

Just a repair that I've done on a couple of hubs where the drums were great and this fix was worth a shot before taking more drastic measures.
First of all the races get loose from incorrect bearing adjustment and abuse... and the hubs enlarge from either or both of these two cases. Having said that one day when working on one that I wanted to try and salvage as the drum was so great..
I did the following:

If you notice there are 4 seats -staked indentations on the outside of the drum where the race sits.
I layed the hub on the side of my steel workbench with the drum off the side hub extension supported on the workbench and gave each side 1-good wack with my heavy brass hammer. Do this on all 4-sides with about the same force on all.

If done evenly the race will fit tight and if the drum is banded ( recommended) and turned everything should be true. The key is doing this evenly.

I've done this on several drums to salvage them and have not had a problem yet. I would still recommend the use of locktite cylindrical locking fluid for extra safety. The is way better than staking the inside if the hub which does not work.

Just my 2 cents worth. Of course the 1st choice is to secure a good hub and drum, either original or good repro if need be. Worth a shot if you need to.
Note: if the drums are much oversize suitable replacement are certainly recommended. I did this to salvage otherwise good drums that had the race hub issue.
Larry S

[Tim B.]

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Berts has an oversized front race. Tim

[Patrick L.]

Ford had this problem back in the 50s with new vehicles.. I was quite concerned over their fix which was to punch/stake the hubs.. It works if done correctly and centers the cup pretty well.. I've ended up doing it many times over the years without any problems..

[Tom Endy]

Thanks all for the response. I had a spun race on my Vic several years ago, which caused the front to shimmy. I went to the great effort of replcing the hub, which is not a fun project. This past weekend a number of us were working on the brake system of a youth member of our club and we discovered the left front outer race spun and the car does shimmy. I had heard of the repair race. Has anyone actually installed one, and if so, was it a successful repair?

Tom Endy

[Doug in NJ]

If you were willing to accept the cosmetic effect, couldn't you fix this problem for the outer bearing by running a bead of weld around the outside of the hub over the race location, causing the hub to shrink a little?

Doug