Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

When I take the hub off I will entrust the bearing removal and refit to a trusted Lotus specialist.

A 3 leg puller will damage the Hub.
Alan

Follow the link I posted to the picture for the full gory details pertaining to my "hub off" adventure. You'll see that I tried a 3 legged puller (not against the hub flange, but against a ground down spinner that Sue sent me) and the result was a knackered puller.

+1 to Alan's post - we seem to be agreeing with each other quite a bit!

I had a similar problem many years ago and it turned out to be that the inner race of the outer bearing had worn a groove into the stub axle. At that time I worked in a large engineering works (midlands gas turbine manufacturer) and once the axle was out I took it into work and they metal sprayed and ground it back to its correct size. From memory it was worn about half way round the axle with a max depth approaching 1mm. I replaced the axle and both bearings and I partially filled the bottom of the strut casting with oil (half a cup full?). It?s been there ever since doing thousands of miles as a daily driver once repaired. Bound to get some comments about this repair, but 40 years ago with young children and limited finances that?s what I could afford. To be honest I?ve rebuilt the rear suspension recently and had forgotten all about this until seeing this post.

I had the same problem the bearing had worn a groove in the stub axle.
A friend got it metal sprayed the same as you
Perfect repair and no problems.
Alan

So that makes three of us, guess it is not as rare a failure as I thought

Stub axles are not much more than paying for welding these days. I would have had it spray welded had I a source that took payment in beer

Four of us at least. I had one go like that about 20yrs ago but not knowing a metal sprayer had to replace it. For some unknown reason it?s still lying in my junk parts bin today.