Removing the Bearings and Races

With the front and rear hubs clean-ish, the next step is to remove the bearings, races and rubber seals. Given the potential age of these components, they will be replaced with new shiny parts.

The process to remove these components is very similar on the front and rear. The only differences are the size of races/bearings and the number of oil seals. Therefore, in this blog post I will document the process for a rear hub carrier, and briefly summarise the process for the front hubs.

Rear hub carrier prior to removing the bearings.

My first step was to review a schematic diagram of the rear hub, as firstly this illustrates which parts can be removed and how they are assembled into the hub carrier. Secondly, this diagram also shows which parts can be replaced and which parts cannot be bought separately and so require extra special care. I learned this second point the hard way, but more on that later. I have previously shown the excellent diagrams from JustJagUK, and their diagram for the rear hub carrier is below. The parts which need removing are the races and bearing (3 and 9 in the image below), the grease seals (2 and 10 in the image below) and inner spacers (4 and 5).

Schematic of rear hub from justjaguk.

I initially tried to remove the grease seals with some leverage from a flat headed screwdriver, with little success. I then placed a punch from the opposing side on the bearing and hit this with a hammer. With one or two good hits both the grease seal and the bearing popped out. This process was repeated on each grease seal/bearing without any problem. So far this was an easy job. The bearings don’t look in too bad a condition; however, they will be replaced as a matter of course. When removing the last bearing from the rear hub carrier two spacers fell out, one large and one small. These are specific to each hub carrier and so must be kept as a pair with a record of which hub they came from. The best way I found to mark these parts and the hub was to use a white cable tie to hold the spacers together and then place another white cable tie on the corresponding hub carrier. On the other side, I will use a black cable tie.

Hub carrier with grease seals, bearings and spacers removed.

The next step is to remove the races, which are a tight pressed fit. These are drifted out with a punch and a lump hammer. When Jaguar made these carriers they made a pair of opposing recesses in the internal sidewall in-between the two races. These recesses allow a punch to be placed against the back surface of the race so it can be drifted out with a hammer. Using these recesses and a few hits with the lump hammer the races start to move. To ensure the races stay square and slide out ‘more’ easily, ensure you alternate between the opposing reses.

Punch placed in reses to move inboard race.

One race has begun to move!

With many, many hits with a hammer later the races finally fall out. Whilst on paper this doesn’t appear difficult, it is a very time-consuming process with what appears like very slow progress.

The carrier is then turned over and the other race is removed using the same process. With both races removed, there should be 8 additional pieces on the bench; 2 races, 2 bearings, 2 grease seals and 2 spacers, to go along with the hub carrier. At this point do not bin the races or bearings as they will come in handy later on. 

Removed parts from hub.

The final parts of the rear hub carrier to disassemble are the fulcrum bearings. These are found at the bottom of the carrier, where the fulcrum shaft passes through, which secures it to a swing arm. To gain access to the bearings there is a metal washer and a grease seal which can be pried off with a flat head screwdriver. With one bearing removed, the other side bearing and central shaft will fall out, or at least they did in my case. 

Fulcrum shaft sand bearings removed from rear hub carrier.

From inspection, these bearings and races appear to be in good condition. There are no signs of rust or marks on the surfaces of the races. This is good news because the process of removing these races is a pain since there is no easy access beneath them. Since they seem to be in good condition, I will forgo the plan to remove and change these races and bearings. They now need a good clean, re-pack them with grease and ensure the same bearings go back into the same races. 

Fulcrum bearing race.

Front Hub

The front hub’s bearings and races are removed by a very similar approach, as is evident from the schematic below. The one thing to note is that when I removed my front hubs from the spline both the grease seal and the bearing came off and so I only have the races left to remove.

Schematic of the front hub from justjaguk.

The races are drifted out using the same approach as above. The front races come out far more easily than the rear ones … or maybe I am just getting better at drifting.