Semi-Girling brakes and hubs

[Steve Jones]

I've just had a look at some of my stock of brake parts. I've two, new, rear Girling cams bought within the last 10 years or so and they're certainly marked wrong way round. When assembled as they're marked, the levers face towards the centre of the car. Swap them to the opposite sides and the levers face away from the centre as they should.

Steve

[frequentflyer]

I have completed the brake rebuild as for initial post. I stuck with the original hubs and ally shoes but have fitted the kevlar and bronze strand linings from one of our trusted suppliers. As the linings are a little thicker than the normal ones offered I had to make some adjustments to the shoes in the milling machine to allow for the additional thickness. I have also trued up the drums in the lathe and readjusted throughout the rest of the braking system. All much better now and find locking the wheels is possible wihout huge ammounts of brake pedal pressure. Just a few more little jobs before the Derbyshire trial.

[Old Dave]

Well thanks for all the advice. I will take careful note of how everything fits. I have a new adjustable cable as well, which Ruairidh tells me, is easy to adjust…!!!! If I need to shorten the cable,I guess
a hacksaw will do, or bolt cutters.

Thank again

[David Cochrane]

I fold the loose end of the cable back on itself and attach if at the front. If at the rear, simply poke the loose end into the end of the brake cross-shaft.

[Old Dave]

Thank you David - that makes sense to leave what should be a short bit at worst on the adapter.

[Old Dave]

Well, the brakes went fairly well though not completed yet. I have an excellent pair of cams and levers curtesy of Reckless Rat - thank you Bruce. Just the usual need to doctor the cotter pins to fit. The new oilite bushes pressed in easily and needed no doctoring thankfully.

My attention turned to the hubs. I did eventually manage to "adjust" the lip seals to fit and since the bearings appear fine with no play, I just regreased them and decided to stick with them. Given that they came out of the hub, it shouldn't have been too difficult to put it all back together. Yes well! Please see photo of the inner bearing applied to the inner hub body.

I first built all the parts including inner hub, bearing, and spacer, outer bearing on to the stub axle and tightened the castellated nut and installed a split-pin. Having applied a gasket and gasket cement (blue) I tried to put the outer bearing case over the lot. Even with some force carefully applied I could not get the two flanges together. It was probably about a millimeter - certainly a finger nail could be put down the gap.

I have tried a hammer and outer bearing shell from a Maxi but I am not convinced that the inner bearing is in far enough. I tried using the Maxi bearing shell and pressing the bearing in a 4 inch vice. Careful measuring with digital calipers suggests that the housing in the outer case is around 10 thou less than the amount of inner bearing sticking out of the inner case. Not a lot but........

Has anyone any thoughts? it seems difficult to know whether the bearing has "bottomed out".

Is the dished washer/plate needed with a lip seal?

As always I greatly appreciate any help.

Dave



   

[Goldnrust]

I don't know if this is the 'right' way, but when I assembled my front hubs recently, I approached it from the other direction.

I assembled the seal, bearings and spacer and pressed the two halves of the front hub together on the bench. I then took this assembly to the car, and offered it up to the stub axle. With a couple of light taps it went far enough on to the axle that I could then used the castellated nut to draw it on the rest of the way. Fitting the split pin was fun mind...

[Alan]

Don’t use split pins, use roll pins - it’s much easier

[Old Dave]

Goldnrust - thanks for your insight. Do I take it you pressed it with a vice, or do you have something else to apply enough pressure? I got one hub together yesterday except for the last mm as I mentioned above. I have pressed the bearing in either side again and will have another go later. Trouble is, I ruined the gasket getting it apart again so I have ordered a couple more. Hamfisted amateur that is the problem. It isn't really rocket-science, but it times it might as well be!!! - Thanks again.

Alan - roll pins. I haven't used those since I was replacing Austin Maxi CV joints 50 years ago. What a great idea - thanks - hope to see you Thursday.

Cheers

Dave

[Goldnrust]

Figuring it out by getting stuck in and having a go is the best way I think. Sometimes there are casualties, at least gaskets are not overly expensive!

I have the luxury of a hydraulic press to help, but the bearings were not overly tight, and with a suitably sized driver (e.g. old sockets or other bearing races as you mentioned) they should tap in with a hammer just fine. If you do it the way I did, you can fit the outer bearing to the outer hub first, make sure it's nicely seated, drop in the spacer then fit the inner bearing. That way you're only dealing with one interference fit at a time.

Not to be patronising, but make sure if you drive bearings in that you apply force to the race that is being fitted to the hub/axle. In terms of case of fitting the bearing to the hub you want to apply force to the outside race as it is being gripped by the hub. If you applied hammer blows to the inside race, the shock of those blows would have to be transferred through the bearing surfaces and the ball bearings themselves and it's quite likely you'll deform one or other of them and the bearing will be ruined.