TR6 Question about TR6/250 hubs

I was installing new bearings in the hubs of my little TR6 this weekend. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when I removed the driver-side hub, the seal fell out in my hand. But when starting to knock out the inner bearing race from the drivers-side hub, to my surprise, it literally fell out in my hand!

Upon further examination the metal wall where the race fits into was much thinner than in other places, looking much like a casting error, but it looks like over 30+ years the wall has stretched and now the race doesn't quite fit. This seems a bit dangerous... Well maybe not dangerous, but it seems that it would cause the bearing to wear prematurely.

Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks,
Shannon

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Has anyone else seen this?

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Nope; the race should have required some persuasion to remove. Perhaps you had excessive (>>0.002") runout due to an over-torqued collapsible spacer. Was there any discoloration of the steel where the race fell from?

BTW--I am impressed you tackled this tough job on your own. Did you fab a puller to separate the outer flange from the tapered shaft?

Thanks for the feedback Rick,

Yeah, one section of the metal wall is definitely thinner where the inner race fits into.. the casting is rough which leads me to believe that it's been that way since new. Looks like to me that the there was an air pocket in the casting or something. At any rate. I found two used hubs for $30.00 so I picked those up.

You speak of a collapsible spacer? I'm not sure where that would go.. basically the inner assembly consisists of Seal - inner bearing - race (in that order, correct?)

Thanks for the complement, actually it was much easier than I thought it would be. I didn't have to use a puller at all. I got a small blunt-end punch and was able to slowly knock each race out by alternating hits on the back of the pully notches cast inside the hub. The way it's made you have to be really sloppy to scar the wall. Installing new races was even easier thanks to a "Bearing & Race Installer" tool borrowed from Autozone. The whole process took 30 minutes, until I ran into this little problem.....

Thanks,
-Shannon

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You speak of a collapsible spacer?

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Silly me, I thought you were tackling the REAR axle hubs. Never mind, no collapsible spacer in the front hubs. I found the Bentley recommendation to "snug and then back off one flat" left my front bearings too loose. If your grease seals are the metal/felt variety, you'll have to check bearing float after a few hundred miles as the felt will bed-in and open the clearance up by then.

Whew... I thought I had really forgotten something there.

Well given the right tools, I wouldn't hesitate to try rebuilding the rear... (famous last words)

-Shannon