TR6 TR6 Heavy duty front Stub axles

[hondo402000]

I was or am considering installing the uprated front axle stubs on my TR6, has anyone done this upgrade? if so is there anything special to know, currently I have wire wheels. I also tried at one point to take the axle stub off when I rebuilt my front suspension about 5 years ago but gave up.
Any tricks besides using heat and impact driver


Hondo

 

[martx-5]

I've been considering this also. Is it the set that Moss shows on their website?? Not exactly a cheap upgrade. I'd also like to know if it's worth it. On the link I posted, there's another link to the installation instructions, but they don't say anything further then whacking the stub axle with a BFH to get it out.

 

[TR3driver]

That looks to be the kit designed by Jack & Tony Drews. It was actually two stages, the first stage was just the spacer & shims to go between the bearing races, which adds a great deal of stiffness to the stub axle. Some other sports cars of the period used the same technique to stiffen the axle.

IMO, on the street, the spacer should be good enough. You can get just the spacers & shims from TRF, P/N HP660, for less than half the price of the full kit (and no having to remove the old stub axles).
https://trf.zeni.net/webcatalog/specials6.21/6.php

Actually, I've driven all these years just letting the stock setup flex a bit with no real issues other than I can notice the low brake pedal after hard cornering. (The spindle flex allows the brake disc to move sideways relative to the caliper, pushing the piston back into the caliper on that side. Obviously, I have disabled the factory solution on the earlier TRs, the Residual Pressure Valve on top of the 5-way connector near the RF wheel.)

When I changed a stub axle years ago, just beating with a BFH didn't cut it. I got the old one out by stacking up some sockets and whatnot, then using a grade 8 nut (not the stock castellated nut) as a puller. Tightened that down until I thought something would break, then started whacking with a BFH again. It popped apart after 4 or 5 blows.

I think the secret is to get some strain on the joint, and then use the hammer blows to set up vibration to help work it apart. More recently I've been using much the same technique to separate solid axle rear hubs. So far, it has worked perfectly on 4 out of 5 hubs (the first one popped apart with just some hammer blows).

 

[hondo402000]

If I do it I am getting the axles too, The first time I saw the axles with out the hubs on I thought to myself "those axles look really tiny"

and there is a big difference in price from Moss, to TRF to Goodparts and from jack and tony drew, you think one place is making them and suppling to the others?

Hondo

 

[TR3driver]

and there is a big difference in price from Moss, to TRF to Goodparts and from jack and tony drew, you think one place is making them and suppling to the others?

I don't <span style="text-decoration: underline">know </span>but my guess is that "uncle jack" had a big run of them made (probably by Southwick) and that everyone is still selling parts from that run. With modern CNC machining techniques, the setup frequently costs hundreds or even thousands of times as much as each part, so it makes sense to make each run as large as possible to keep the overall per unit cost down.

Again I'm guessing that the pricing differences can be explained by normal markup policies.

Here's a photo comparison that shows the difference more clearly:

 

[TR3driver]

If I do it I am getting the axles too, The first time I saw the axles with out the hubs on I thought to myself "those axles look really tiny"

As opposed to the spokes in your wire wheels ?

 

[BobbyD]

I bought them back in 2007 when Uncle Jack was still alive........he sent them to me before I could even pay him! So I documented the whole installation on my site and never looked back.

 

[martx-5]

If I do it I am getting the axles too, The first time I saw the axles with out the hubs on I thought to myself "those axles look really tiny"

As opposed to the spokes in your wire wheels ?

Yeah, but there's 72 of those... :laugh:

 

[TR3driver]

Yeah, but there's 72 of those... :laugh:

Not holding the car up. Only a few spokes at the top are actually supporting the weight of the car. The rest are, at best, holding the wheel in shape.

 

[poolboy]

I must be dumber than I thought because depending on their postion at any given time I figured all 72 always shared some portion of the weight, vectors being what they are and all

 

[TR3driver]

The spokes only take tension; if you try to compress them the head of the spoke just pokes out inside the hub (or the nut pokes into the inner tube inside the tire). The weight of the car is trying to force the hub downwards, so only the spokes above the hub get tension from the weight of the car.

 

[Brosky]

I always wondered how that was distributed.

 

[hondo402000]

Well I ordered my HD stub axles and new bearings this morning.
I will let you know how the install goes, also thinking about putting on some Wildwood calpers from Goodparts

Hondo