I've got an old 90, but it has a Disco 1 front axel.

Last year I had a catastrophic bearing failure on the drivers side front where, whereby the inner wheel bearing welded itself to the sub axel. The heat generated also welded the break calliper bolts solid! So I proceeded to replace the hub, callipers, break discs, sub axel and bearings.

All was good for about 3 months, then I started to hear what sounded like whistling wind coming from that wheel at certain speeds - I'm no expert, but I knew that was the sound of metal on metal, probably bearing related AGAIN!

Thanks to Covid, the 90 hasn't been out much this year, but in the middle of the year I took it out laning, and the noise was very loud, so I decided it wasn't going anywhere else now until I've had a look, and stopped it - I really didn't want another welded bearing situation again.

This week, I've started to take a look. I took the wheel off, then the hub - the bearings look new still, as expected as they've probably only been used for about 10 journeys. The stub axel though, has some burning on the metal, in the area of where the outer wheel bearing rotates around it. The burning is around about 50% of the circumference in that area. I think it's safe to say, this is what I can hear - I don't know if it's:

• Bad wheel bearing
• Badly fitted wheel bearing by me
• Bad/misshaped sub axel
• Something else

But, to be sure, I'm replacing the sub axel again along with the bearings, again.

But, something else I've now noticed, is that there's a lot of play in the shaft inside the sub axel. When I did the replacements last year, the shaft was pretty solid, no play in it. The CV looks in great condition, etc. I used a stub axel kit, so that mean new sub axel bearings/bushes/seals. etc.

So why now, is there play in the shaft? The CV still looks good, the bearing and seal inside the stub axel looked good. So is it something in the swivel/axel area that's meant this is now moving about? Looking at diagrams I can see there's a inner-swivel oil seal, could it be that? It looks ok on mine from what I can see, can I replace that though without having to take the whole swivel apart?

Can anyone think of what else this could be? Does it even matter that the shaft moves about a bit with the hub off?
And does anyone know why I might have got that friction on the stub axel from the outer bearing? I'm really hoping it's just a bad bearing that caused it. I've gone for a better brand this time.

Thanks.

There is usually some movement in the shaft until the outer flange is fitted.
As there is burring on the stub axle end something must be the cause. As you say a poor fitting bearing ?
Is there discolouring on the stub end where the bearing inner race sits ?
Did you check for any wheel wobble before removing everything?

tottot said:

There is usually some movement in the shaft until the outer flange is fitted.
As there is burring on the stub axle end something must be the cause. As you say a poor fitting bearing ?
Is there discolouring on the stub end where the bearing inner race sits ?
Did you check for any wheel wobble before removing everything?

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Yeah I'd say the burning is exactly where the outer of the 2 bearings sits on the stub, but not all the way around the stub, only on what is the underside of it when fitted.
I did check the wheel wobble, none at all, firmly held in place.

HeywoodFloyd said:

Yeah I'd say the burning is exactly where the outer of the 2 bearings sits on the stub, but not all the way around the stub, only on what is the underside of it when fitted.
I did check the wheel wobble, none at all, firmly held in place.

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were bearings too tight and or inner race too loose on stub

jamesmartin said:

were bearings too tight and or inner race too loose on stub

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If were the case, how would I correct this, to make sure I don't hit the same issue again with new bearings and stub?

HeywoodFloyd said:

If were the case, how would I correct this, to make sure I don't hit the same issue again with new bearings and stub?

Click to expand...

check its a good sliding fit and adjust bearings correctly

While I'm playing around with all this and have the stub axle off... I do have a halfshaft oil seal to go inside the swivel. But I still don't understand if I have to take the whole swivel off to replace this seal, or can I pull it out and replace "through" the swivel, while the CV and halfshaft is out?