front wheel bearing inner race

psychII · 05-03-2018, 05:27 PM

I am attempting to replace the wheel bearings on the front right hub of my 86.5. Disassembly went fine and installation of the outer race went fine. Problem I'm running into is the inner race... it will not seat all the way against the lip. I assume it's supposed to but there remains a 2 or 3mm or so gap and will not budge.

Any suggestions?

Mrmerlin · 05-13-2018, 08:33 AM

Chris do you mean that the inner bearing race will not slide onto the spindle?

psychII · 05-13-2018, 04:41 PM

no, it will not fully seat against the lip inside the hub. It will all go back on the spindle and reassemble, but the amount of gap between the race and the lip shows up as that same amount of offset with the rotor and the caliper causing the rotor to grind against the caliper.

All very frustrating.

honerboys · honerboys's Garage

did it slide in smoothly and squarely and suddenly get stuck or was it a battle all the way in

Pete R · Pete R's Garage

Heat the hub to a couple hundred degrees and put the races in the freezer before pressing. It helps.

psychII · 05-15-2018, 08:33 AM

I tried 3 different bearings/races, including Porsche OEM. Froze the races, heated the hub in the oven... no joy. When assembled, it feels like it seats all the way on the spindle and I followed a procedure I found for tightening the hub nut and then backing off.

Grrr

harborman · harborman's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by psychII

I tried 3 different bearings/races, including Porsche OEM. Froze the races, heated the hub in the oven... no joy. When assembled, it feels like it seats all the way on the spindle and I followed a procedure I found for tightening the hub nut and then backing off.

Grrr

How does it look compared to the other wheel, if that is still original? Why not post a few pictures of your problem. How did the new part compare to the old part?

psychII · 05-16-2018, 04:57 AM

Well, I solved the issue with the help of a buddy. The race will NOT seat all the way against the lip inside the hub. The procedure I read said to reassemble and when initially tightening the hub nut, to put a screw driver in the split and tighten until tight and back off.... well, turns out that is not tight enough to fully seat everything, thus the misalignment of the rotor and caliper. We took channel locks and really cranked down on the nut while turning the rotor... and it worked.

There is sufficient play in the locking washer, good movement of the wheel, and drives great.

This caused me a lot of brain-strain. Hope this will help someone else.

SRaouf · 07-17-2018, 11:55 AM

Hi Chris I'm having the same problem as you on my 1985 S2 (i.e. the inner race wont seat against the lip) and was wondering if you could confirm thats how you fitted yours and is it still working ok? everyone on Rennlist thinks i'm doing it wrong
Thanks
Sam

Mrmerlin · 07-17-2018, 08:54 PM

cranking down on the bearing nut in the hopes of pressing the race into the hub is not how this is done,
bearing damage can occur
If you tried to press the inner race into the hub and it didnt go easily or almost fall into the hub then there is other damage that must be fixed.
usually its from a nick on the bore, this will then make the race go into the hub at an angle and possibly cause more damage.

Take it apart and heat the hub to 250 F put the race into the freezer for an hour,
inspect the hub bore for damage,
dress it with some fine grit paper then heat the hub and drop the bearing race in and let it cool

psychII · 07-19-2018, 07:05 PM

Hey Sam. Yes, it is still working fine and did not seat fully against the lip. I tried the heat to 250 in the oven, froze the races... nothing worked. Tightening the hub nut with something more than a small screwdriver got me home.