Rear Wheel hub & bearings.

[johnfrancis898]

Does anyone have the tools for dismantling rear hubs and changing the wheel bearings? It looks quite specialised. Looking at the manual they quote references to Churchill tools. I know they supplied a lot of the tooling for BL and most UK garages had their tools on a the wall in their workshops back in the day.
I have an old pair or rear hubs along with drive shafts which I acquired some time ago and was thinking of having a go a refurbishing them myself.
My car had a lot of play in the rear wheel bearings when I first got it so I had a TR6 guy do them. He ended up having to get refurbished hubs from the TR shop in London. It was a good job done but the bill was a bit hefty! A Quick Look on Google and EBay shows there are still quite a few Churchill tools about.

[johnfrancis898]

Sorry I should of submitted this on the Transmission section.

[Alec]

Hello John,

a lot depends on your facilities, which I'm assuming are minimal?

While gear pullers are common and can be bought second hand for not too much, they tend to distort the hub flange. A substancial adapter plate is required to bolt to the hub to which the puller can be connected. My puller is an old Sykes Pickavant one with a 1" diameter jack screw. It does need some real force to break the taper and I normally screw the puller as tight as I can then hit the screw head hard which does the job, noisily and spectacularly as the hub flies off. I remember some time back doing an early hub with a split pin drilling and the thread distorted before the hub came off, this show the force required.

A test dial indicator (Commonly called a clock gauge) is required to measure the end float, these can be bought cheaply second hand. I made two spanners to do the actual adjustemnt, and as no real force is necessary I just used something like 1/8" (3mm) sheet stel and cut them to size then welded some tube as a handle.

There was an article in Six Appeal some time back about the possibilty of these hubs failing and causing wheel loss and highlighted a totally new replacement hub with either CV drive shafts or universal; joints. While expensive, they are value for money when you look at what you get and this is what I now have fitted to my car.

Alec

[johnfrancis898]

Hello Alec

Thanks for your comprehensive reply on this. It’s interesting to know how others have handled the situation. Like me, they are probably knocking on a bit and not as agile!

I think if I had all the Churchill tools required I’d be confident to have a go. Whilst my facilities are limited to my small garage and bench, it looks like a good vice and work bench would be ok. I’m fairly good with most of the mechanical bits but I’ve not ventured much into gearboxes or rear axles. Nor bodywork unless it’s a bit of welding. Last year I did all the front suspension and steering - rack, shocks, springs and all bushes and ball joints. It’s quite a few years ago when I had my Pi, (about 40 actually), my mate had a TR6 and I remember doing them on that as I think they are similar to that and also the Stag. I think we spent all weekend doing them and we borrowed the tools from a guy who worked at a local dealer and he supplied all the genuine BL parts. It was hard getting it all apart and that was with the correct tools! Once we had it all apart it all worked out well and I seem to remember he sold the car to a guy who we saw about 20 years later who told us he had done up the car and he had never touched the hubs in that time. A quick check on the reg shows the car was taxed up until 2018 so it’s probably still about.

Churchills, who made the tools, look like they still exist. I except they come up for sale occasionally but unless you knew exactly what they were it would probably be quite difficult to recognise them.

As you say the CV upgrades now available are probably now the best way to go but they are not cheap. I’ve not heard much about them but I am sure we will hear.

Cheers

John

[Alec]

Hello John,

from my manual the puller is a (Presumably Triumph reference number) S.109A, a quick google brought nothing up though? There was picturwe of hub puller Rimmers do sell but I don't know if it's for the big saloon or the Herald\Spitfire range, it didn't say, I suspect the latter.

Alec