SPF Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement

I thought I would share replacing the rear wheel bearings on my 40. I replaced one of the front wheel bearings some time ago but I didn't remember it being that hard but I can't say that for the rear. For most people they're going to have someone do it for them but being a glutton for punishment and wanting to share my pain I'm posting my experience.

I was looking for some stock (steel or aluminum) to use to push out the old then push in the new inner and outer bearing races when the guy at the steel store told me he used a kit from Harbor Frieght and that he unexpectedly used it quite a bit. I have a real love hate with the place but since it didn't run on electricity I gave it a try and it worked out great.

First off pushing out the inner race. As you can see from the picture there is almost nothing showing of the inner race from it's back side. In fact there's just a little more that .5 mm showing. So I turned down the OD of the 72mm tool to 67.1mm. Then I made a step at 65.9mm (.6mm per side). I then used the the supplied handle (see picture of the kit) to hammer out the race.

There was lots showing of the back side of the outer race the trick was getting something larger than the hole in back of the race to push it out. I had to cut a flat spot on each side of the 76mm tool so I could slip it through the bearing then turn it 90° seating it to the back of the race. Again I used the handle from the kit and a hammer to remove it. It turned out the 81mm tool was a perfect fit to hammer the new race into place.

Now putting in a new inner race. I ended up turning down the outside of the 76mm tool to install the inner race. I tried using a long bolt to suck the inner race into place but it went in sideways every time so I ended up pulling the upright out of the car and pushing it in with the press. Had I known I was going to remove the upright I would have used the press instead of a hammer for everything.

Picture 13 is the start of the reassembly. The first thing the goes on is a spacer that has a chamfer on one side. It's important the chamfer side goes down against the the pin hat. Removing the outer bearing can be very difficult without damaging the seal so I ground two spots on the spacer giving me a place to pry if needed later. Otherwise you have to use a knife or pry against the seal, not a good idea if you plan to reuse it. Next is the larger of the two seals with the rim facing the bearing, then the outer bearing. Slid the whole thing back into the upright putting on the inner bearing, seal, preload nut, and preload nut retaining ring (or whatever they call that POS). And last but not least the two TINY allen head screws which as soon as I figure out the bearing preload will be loctited in place.

One of the pictures shows just how little material there is to push on the back side of the inner race. A bit of poor planning on the part of SPF. The wheel bearings of the SPF GT-40 are one thing they should have updated to a newer technology.

If you look at the lower shaft of the of the upright you'll see where they either put the setscrews that keep the shaft in the correct oreantation or the flat spots in the wrong place. It was easy just to add some new flat spots. One other thing there is a boss at the bottom of the upright which IMHO needed a hole to let out any water that collected in the bottom. That seemed better than letting it sit in the upright rusting the shaft.

I know way too much information, that was my opinion also. Otherwise it was a piece of cake. I'm leaving the bearing preload mess for another thread.
 

Attachments

  • 20160810_153203.jpg
    20160810_153203.jpg
    373.4 KB · Views: 336
  • 20160810_183928-002.jpg
    20160810_183928-002.jpg
    332.6 KB · Views: 313
  • 20160810_184605-001.jpg
    20160810_184605-001.jpg
    269.8 KB · Views: 346
  • 20160811_093157.jpg
    20160811_093157.jpg
    424 KB · Views: 310
  • 20160811_100059.jpg
    20160811_100059.jpg
    304.5 KB · Views: 354
  • 20160811_100012-001.jpg
    20160811_100012-001.jpg
    334.9 KB · Views: 300
  • 20160811_172516-001.jpg
    20160811_172516-001.jpg
    321.3 KB · Views: 348
  • 20160811_183028-1.jpg
    20160811_183028-1.jpg
    221.3 KB · Views: 322
  • 20160811_183028-002.jpg
    20160811_183028-002.jpg
    142.7 KB · Views: 338
  • 20160811_181544.jpg
    20160811_181544.jpg
    207.6 KB · Views: 353
  • 20160811_183043.jpg
    20160811_183043.jpg
    279.9 KB · Views: 324
  • 20160811_183100.jpg
    20160811_183100.jpg
    219.8 KB · Views: 295
  • 20160811_184124.jpg
    20160811_184124.jpg
    258.6 KB · Views: 298
  • 20160811_184945.jpg
    20160811_184945.jpg
    336.7 KB · Views: 327
  • 20160811_185000.jpg
    20160811_185000.jpg
    346.8 KB · Views: 316
  • 20160811_185039.jpg
    20160811_185039.jpg
    309.8 KB · Views: 333
  • 20160811_185132-001.jpg
    20160811_185132-001.jpg
    286.6 KB · Views: 316
  • 20160908_135346.jpg
    20160908_135346.jpg
    285.6 KB · Views: 319
  • 20160908_140037-003.jpg
    20160908_140037-003.jpg
    210.5 KB · Views: 270
  • 20160908_135438.jpg
    20160908_135438.jpg
    319.5 KB · Views: 305
  • 20160908_135854.jpg
    20160908_135854.jpg
    173.9 KB · Views: 325
  • 20160908_135918.jpg
    20160908_135918.jpg
    178.5 KB · Views: 277
  • 20160908_140135-001.jpg
    20160908_140135-001.jpg
    230 KB · Views: 291
  • 20160908_135937.jpg
    20160908_135937.jpg
    179.7 KB · Views: 295
  • 20160811_093248.jpg
    20160811_093248.jpg
    312.2 KB · Views: 273
  • 20160908_135629.jpg
    20160908_135629.jpg
    156.6 KB · Views: 294
  • 20160810_161648.jpg
    20160810_161648.jpg
    272.7 KB · Views: 325
  • 20160811_164514-001.jpg
    20160811_164514-001.jpg
    157.8 KB · Views: 324
  • 20160811_173700-001.jpg
    20160811_173700-001.jpg
    214.4 KB · Views: 273
  • 20160811_182347-001.jpg
    20160811_182347-001.jpg
    160.8 KB · Views: 270
  • 20160810_153100-1.jpg
    20160810_153100-1.jpg
    194.3 KB · Views: 291
  • 20160809_130243(0).jpg
    20160809_130243(0).jpg
    401.9 KB · Views: 301
  • 20160809_130005.jpg
    20160809_130005.jpg
    268.1 KB · Views: 291
  • 20160809_130018.jpg
    20160809_130018.jpg
    205.1 KB · Views: 326
Last edited:
You're welcome Markus I enjoy doing it. BTW what color is your strip. Do you have a paint code and some more pictures.
 

Dave Hood

Lifetime Supporter
Thanks, Richard. I completely agree with your statement that the wheel bearings of the SPF GT-40 are one thing they should have updated to a newer technology. They are by far the biggest maintenance challenge. A sealed bearing design would be nice, and the impact on the originality of the SPF cars would be minimal.
 
Hello all,

After spending many times on my wheel bearings too (I posted on this forum all modification I've done (sleeves / bigger and larger wheel bearings)) I've modified my uprights by making holes (see picture below) in order to be able to revove easily the bearings next time.

It's simple, effective and avoid to damage the uprights when removing the bearings.

20160810_184605-001.jpg

ROBY427
 

Dave Hood

Lifetime Supporter
Lee Holman at Holman Moody has made sleeves for my front bearings, and they work very well. Unfortunately these need to be made individually for each car, so it can't be a mass produced item.
 

Attachments

  • Crush Sleeve Placement.jpg
    Crush Sleeve Placement.jpg
    118.7 KB · Views: 384
Dave there is no reason those spacers could not be made 'say 0.020" ' longer than reqd in large numbers and then finished to reqd length by the individual car owners or their respective engineers. The amount of extra length might depend on what tolerances are used by SPF at initial manufacture of the uprights.

ps, these two threads might be better merged to keep the info in one topic.
 

Dave Hood

Lifetime Supporter
That is a good point. Or the spacer could be made a bit shorter and rings of various thicknesses could be provided to fill the remaining gap.
 
That is a good point. Or the spacer could be made a bit shorter and rings of various thicknesses could be provided to fill the remaining gap.

If your going to try that method I would suggest looking around for a diff pinion shim of similar size, these are hardened and are often around 0.100" to 0.200" thick and have a range that extends over about 0.020". If your lucky enough to find a suitable candidate you could have spacers made to work with these and simply maintain a full set to share around amongst the owners who should only have to replace the shims they use and pay postage on the kit.Someone os going to have to do the donkey work to find a shim that is suitable.
 
jac mac how much of a beating would they be. I would think an aluminum spacer with hardened shims would work. I wouldn't think there would be much in the line of hammering because the lack of slack in the assembly. The pinion from an original Ford 9' used a crush sleeve but to use something like that we would have to have a torque spec which wouldn't work in my case due to the tight fit of my axle splines.

OliveR would you pls post a link? Dave how much did H&M charge you if you don't mind sharing?
 
Last edited:

Markus

SPRF40
Lifetime Supporter
You're welcome Markus I enjoy doing it. BTW what color is your strip. Do you have a paint code and some more pictures.

Hi Richard,

The strip is PPG guardsman blue acc. the web the paint code is "PPG 12832" I have the correct code somewhere written down - we're in process of moving into a new house, therefore I can't get to this information right now......

The base color is ppg wimbledon white.

I will post some pic's asap.

Markus
 
jac mac how much of a beating would they be. I would think an aluminum spacer with hardened shims would work. I wouldn't think there would be much in the line of hammering because the lack of slack in the assembly. The pinion from an original Ford 9' used a crush sleeve but to use something like that we would have to have a torque spec which wouldn't work in my case due to the tight fit of my axle splines.

OliveR would you pls post a link? Dave how much did H&M charge you if you don't mind sharing?

I dont think alloy would be suitable being a softer material. The OE crush sleeve from the Ford 9" is why we swap to a solid spacer, under heavy loads/more power the basic preload is dependant on the integrity of the locking material of the pinion nut- not the torque figure. We only tighten the pinion nut until the reqd pinion bearg drag/preload is reached. By contrast with a solid spacer we can tighten the pinion nut to something like 120ft lb.
Your axle splines should have no effect??, you would set the bearing preload etc with the large nut that has the tanged washer with small set screws. screws
 
My axle splines are so tight it takes more than 120ft lb to tighten.

Maybe, but that is not the issue here. That axle nut on the splined shaft is only tightening the splined shaft into the hub, it has no effect on bearing pre load. In the attached pic you can see the plain face the splined shaft abuts, inside the large nut and lock ring that are used for brg preload setting. Ignore the text I have put on pic, that was for another SPF owner who reqd info on how to adjust brg pre-load the old less than ideal way.
 

Attachments

  • attachmentaxl6.jpg
    attachmentaxl6.jpg
    396.2 KB · Views: 378

Dave Hood

Lifetime Supporter
Richard:

I believe Lee Holman charged me $400 for the two spacers on the front spindles. That included installation of the spacers and new bearings.
 

Markus

SPRF40
Lifetime Supporter
If your going to try that method I would suggest looking around for a diff pinion shim of similar size, these are hardened and are often around 0.100" to 0.200" thick and have a range that extends over about 0.020". If your lucky enough to find a suitable candidate you could have spacers made to work with these and simply maintain a full set to share around amongst the owners who should only have to replace the shims they use and pay postage on the kit.Someone os going to have to do the donkey work to find a shim that is suitable.

Hello all,

Bringing up an old thread...

Anybody out there who did the "donkey work" described by Jac Mac regarging finding shims matching the spindles?

So far I got away with frequent adjustment of wheel bearings but getting tired of this and looking into making a sleeve + (buying) shims to extend TBO.

On a separate topic, today I wenn through "all (?)" of the SPF wheel bearing threads and found all kind of information about what to do and the discussion about the Design flaw except a consistend description of the "preload" during bearing adjustment.

1. Some (most) talk about preload the bearing (which in my understanding would be fully tighten the nut and then add some "torque" to "preload" the bearing)
2. others describe to fully tighten the nut and then turn the nut counterclock wise to give "air" into the bearing

So far I used method # 2. - I turned counterclockwise about two holes from of the adjustent nut.....

Any comments?

Thanks in advance
Markus
 
I always tighten the nut as tight as possible without binding the bearings.
On a similar issue some owners have bearings that are a little loose on the axle. Ideal repair for this is chrome plating the shaft, but I've had good luck with plasma spraying. Simpler and less costly with no risk of distortion. My repair has about 7000 miles on it and the outer bearing is still a press fit on the axle. Would this hold up for racing use? Maybe not.
 
Back
Top