Sore hand!

[wildoliver]

Well lesson 2 in lotus ownership, after lesson 1 if it can go wrong it will, lesson 2 was if it can go wrong and injure you in the process it will!

Waiting to get on to lesson 3 after all the pain when the jobs done and you drive the car again its all worth it!

Tried to remove rear hub last night, expected it to be tight as on normal cars, didnt expect it to be so tight you need sever tons per square inch of pressure to remove it!

While winding the hub puller up for the third time, on of the legs decided to let go, firing the highly taut hub puller in to my left hand at about 100 mph, upon leaving the garage leaving a blue haze behind i went upstairs to consult the manual to find out the proper procedure...........lo and behold guess which page is missing..........thats right the one i need! I refer you to lesson 1!!

So i rang a very helpful chap up that helped me get the parts to do the job and he explained its a tighten up and leave job, so its been left on coming up for 24 hours now, i keep tightening slightly every so often, and hopefully it will go soon, if not when i get home welding torch is coming out anyway!

B**tard car!

[types26/36]

While winding the hub puller up for the third time, on of the legs decided to let go, firing the highly taut hub puller in to my left hand at about 100 mph, so its been left on coming up for 24 hours now, i keep tightening slightly every so often, and hopefully it will go soon, if not when i get home welding torch is coming out anyway!!

Just be careful you dont distort the hub, it can happen depending on the type of puller you are useing.
A little heat should help particually if it has been assembled with loctite.
Good luck.
Brian

[1964 S1]

what page are you missing? I can send it to you... are there inner and outer locking clips involved in this job?

[wildoliver]

Done it!!!!

nightmare job! Even with heat took a lot of doing, vever want to do it again!

Its ok thanks I have another kind gent sorting me a page out of the manual!

Oliver

[type26owner]

Just a little friendly advice here. I would not do it the Lotus manual way. The instructions in the Dave Bean Catalog supersede the original instructions due to a pattern of catastrophic failures. This strut/axle/hub area is a serious safety hazard and not doing it the Dave Bean way can get you in big trouble. The corrosion fretting likelyhood of this design totally sucks.

[M100]

Not sure what the Dave Bean method is but my advice is to only ever use a proper "legless" hub puller, either a threaded one that fits the knock on hubs or a 4 hole one for the bolt ons.

IMHO everything else like modified knock ons etc is a bodge.

[miked]

M100.

Can you describe the type of puller you mean. Is this something that fits behind the hub flange that and also pushes on the shoulder of the hub shaft. Up to know I have used the insert and an old spinner. It does worry me about pulling on the threads of the knock on part of the hub.

Mike

[M100]

Pulling on the threads is ok and if they aren't then surely its better to find out in the garage than on the road The puller I have is like a double ended spinner (LH&RH thread) made of steel with a setscrew and insert running through a threaded hole that bears on the end of the outer driveshaft. I've had mine for years (A Club Lotus ad many years back had them for about a tenner) There was a similar one on Ebay a few weeks back with a picture but can't find it at the moment.

The legged pullers have a huge potential to slip as the hub has nothing for the legs to fit onto, plus there is a risk of distorting or cracking the hub. Even with the right puller there is a huge amount of stored energy in there to cause things to fly around when it comes off, a puller that stays attached to the hub is one less thing to fly around!

One thing that might be worth trying with a stuck hub is to use the new combined freezer and penetrating fluid spray that Loctite have brought out "Freeze and Release" although this would require access holes in the puller. I've done something similar before with bulk CO2 but this is a combined spray that works quite well and also avoids getting the welding gear out.

[pereirac]

According the the workshop manual (if I remember correctly), the next stage is to 'push out the old bearings'. When I tried this I ended up removing the whole rear suspension on one side, walking 5 miles to my local Lotus dealer (as my car was now in pieces) and asking them to push the old bearings out for me. What the manual does not say is that this can take a 5 ton press ... which is what he used!! The only 'good' part is putting the suspension back together was a lot easier (apart from reconnecting the doughnuts)

[wildoliver]

Tbh, i found except for releasing the taper from the hub, which was a total nighmare, the entire job was fairly easy, once the bearing areas were cleaned up and the circlips loosened, the circlips came out simple, then with gentle persuasion the drive shaft and rear bearing came out as one, and the front bearing popped out simply enough, from point of removing hub to refitting hub took 20 mins ish including swapping the insert!

And the donut was simple with a large circlip and patience took about 5 minutes of joggling and on it went!

[miked]

Re discusion on the hub insert.

I had those made from the Paul Robinshaw/Chris Ross book, shows plus 2 and little elan for the two different size of hub. They bear on the shaft shoulder rather than the end of the shaft. Which I think is better as you get a good square push on the hub shaft. I had a few made and got rid of the rest on ebay. Some hubs can be complete bar stewards, but the heat and cool bit and turn at bit at a time thing does seem to work. A proper puller does seem frightening in view of the rear angle of the hub. As I recall, could be wrong, type 26 pointed to a device for putting a socket/breaker bar on a special spinner. I have an odd shaped big spanner that goes over the three cornered spinner. I am going to get some of those hex federal spinner (just for hub puling) and make up a big spanner. this will be easier.

Mike

[marcfuller]

For the heating/cooling on the Lotus hubs I have started tieing a good sized chunk of dry ice to the rotoflex end of drive shaft and let it chill for about 35 min, before using a propane gas torch on the hub's shaft area for about 10 minutes. Came apart fairly easily both times I used this method on some really resistant hubs. (One of the hubs had the worst example of fretting I have seen in over 30 years on any assembly.)

I just use some ugly spinners I modified with 1/2" Grade 8 bolts, nuts and washers for hub pullers.