Front Corner – part 2

Using the parts ordered from SNG, it is time to rebuild the front hubs with the new bearings and races. Once these are rebuilt, they can then be installed directly onto the part built front corners.

More Angle Grinding

The typical approach to install the bearing races is to use a hydraulic press with the correct sized race press tool. As I had neither of these tools a second common approach is to drift the races in. Whilst this process initially appears to be the reverse of the removal process, extra care needs to be taken not to damage the concave race surface. To avoid damaging these new races, the old race can be placed on top of the new races, with the old race then taking the direct impact from the hammer. To avoid getting the old races stuck in the hub, a clever trick which I found on Marks blog was to cut a slot into the old races. This slot allowed for the old race to deform and pop out of the hub if they get stuck. A short term borrow of Andrew’s angle grinder and slots were cut in the old set of races. 

Front races with slots cut in them.

Rebuilding the Front Hubs

Having created a race ‘insertion tool’, it’s now time to tackle their installation. I started by laying out all the parts on my workbench to ensure that I hadn’t lost anything. There was a small split pin in the SNG rebuild kit which I could see myself losing, so this was put in the top drawer of my tool chest for safe keeping. 

Parts and tools required to rebuild the front hub.

The plan seems simple: drift both new races in with a lump hammer using the old races to protect the new ones. 

The process of installing new races into a front hub.

After several good hits with my trusty hammer, the tone of the impacts changed to signify that the race is finally in its new home. The old races then came out easily, thanks to the freshly cut slot, exposing the installed race. I couldn’t believe how simple the process was.

New races installed in the front hub.

This process is then repeated on the other side of the hub. Both sides went in without too many problems. Although the hardest part is certainly getting the race to sit true in the recess during the first few impacts.

Once both races are installed, the messy jobs start as the bearings need to be greased. Since I didn’t want to get any grease on my phone or camera, there are no pictures of the process. The method was to rub general purpose grease into the new bearings internals, by rotating the outing surface in relation to the inner surface. A few good scoops of grease and the bearings can be dropped into the corresponding race. I should note I also put a small amount of grease on the race surface as a precaution before installing each bearing. 

Greased front hub.

Installing the inboard race is the same process, although there is an additional grooved oil seal that keeps the inboard bearing in place and keeps dirt out from the bearing. The seal supplied by SNG seemed to be slightly larger than the original donor part, which I had kept. After trying to install this seal with varying tools from a hammer to my vice, I decided to resort to the original seal. The old seal isn’t in bad a condition and so should suffice. I will undoubtedly come back to this and try and install the new SNG parts at a later date but will wait to discuss this with Mark when he gets there.

Installing the hub onto the chassis 

With both hubs rebuilt, the next step is to finish building up the front corners. Before installing the hubs, I decided to split from the AK manual and install the front hub covers, from the donor car. These have already been cleaned and painted ready for installation. Whilst the build manually does not say to install this part, they don’t appear to foul on anything (unlike the front splash shield) whilst offering additional protection to the bearings from the elements.

Final parts required to rebuild the front left corner.

This cover is secured to the upright with three T30 headed bolts. To ensure they don’t vibrate loose, the threads are given a coating of lock tight. This might be foolish and may come off later, but let’s see.

Greased stub axle with hub cover installed.

Returning to the AK build manual, the next step is to apply a small amount of grease to the front stub axle; which I duly did. The rebuilt hub then slides over the stub axle and is held in position with the large cone-shaped washer and fastened to the axel with a 15/16’’ nut. Both these parts came from the donor car and have been cleaned prior to installation. This assembly is then torqued to 27 Nm, released and then re-tightened finger tight. To ensure this nut doesn’t come loose, a castellated cover sits over the nut with a split pin passed through. Since this assembly might come apart again, either to replace, to grease seal or to remove the hub cover, I will not fully install the split pin yet. 

Front hub secured to stub axle.

To complete the installation of the front hub, a small domed cover fits over the end of the stub axel. This is a friction fit and includes a large O ring. For now, I have decided to re-use the original O ring from the donor car as it seemed in good condition.

The final stage of building the front corner is to install the front shock absorbers. This is a simple process, using the AK supplied 4 x 7/16” x 2.5” + M12 washers & nylocs to secure the top and bottom of the shock absorbers to their respective mounting locations on the wishbones and chassis. The one thing to note, is that the build manual recommends to ensure the adjusting knob on the shocks is facing inboard. This was impossible with my shock absorbers, and after a quick email to AK, they confirmed this does happen with modern shocks and they suggest placing adjustment knob forwards. 

After repeating this extensive process (over a few weekends) on the opposing front side, we are left with an assembled front end. 

Assembled front suspension!

With the front end assembled, the focus now shifts to the rear and installing the heavy differential. 

As an added bonus, I took this slow motion video of me using the angle grinder one evening. I was not cutting anything important, and this was done just to make the video.