known

iTrader: (1)

I figured I would share some of my recent work in prep for my double race in April and the rest of the season this year. I chose Koyo bearings and wanted to repack them since I went down from Integra hubs to the smaller Civic hubs. The hubs were from a buddy that was tracking them, I should have taken pics of the old bearings but they were cooked. This was just from HPDE events and street driving.

The reason I dropped down to the smallest Civic setup was because of the 11in Wilwood kit I acquired. I also have brake ducting to keep things cooler at the center hub so I expect this to last me at least this season and longer.

Dirty19, now this will pop up in the more recent searches maybe so you are annoyed by one less redundant thread :p


I used Amsoil 2000 racing grease, this should help with the the higher temps the bearings were really never intended to see.

Repacking Civic/Integra wheel bearing:



Take a flat tip screwdriver, slide it between the two inner races



Twist screwdriver until one of the races pops up then alternate from side to side until one pops out. This may take a little effort to get the first one off.



Once the first one is out, you can tap the other half of the inner race out (by hand or tiny hammer). I set the outer race on the two plates from the press giving the inner race room to fall out when I tapped it (you can also use two pieces of wood ).



Now you can clean out all of the original grease that came in bearing.



I also popped out all of the ball bearings from the cage to get the rest of the grease out.



Comparison of the original grease(waxy looking stuff on the Right) to the Amsoil Race Grease (left)



I started by packing in some grease under the seal before I replaced the ball bearings



After replacing the ball bearings, pack in more grease on top of the ball bearings and between the cages



Don't get too carried away by packing too much grease in there, just enough to fill the gaps. Otherwise a lot of it will squeeze out when you replace the inner races.

Reverse order to put it all back together, be careful not to damage the seals.

Final result ready to go:

SHG_James

Awesome write-up!

rice_classic

Now you should do a write up on how to keep the hawk dtc pads from delaminating! I'm still bitter.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

Excellent.. this is what we need. More detailed write ups.

donut.

Cool write up. Always wanted to try this myself. Found a grease packer at harbor freight. I wonder how well it works.

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/c...mage_16456.jpg

solo-x

Nice write up. I wanted to do this with the fresh bearings that I just installed on my car, but ran out of time. Repacking the outer axle with better grease is a good idea too.

known

iTrader: (1)

Thanks guys.

The grease packer looks pretty useful actually.

Rice, my first time using the DTCs so Im hoping I dont have any issues like that. Im not that worried about too much heat at the races Im doing in April. The test will be later this summer at Sebring, which will expose if I have kept this area cool enough.

rice_classic

With those big gigantic *** rotors I bet you'll be just fine. Like I said.. I'm still bitter.

As for bearings, I've never had a bearing go bad before I replaced it and I do the 2 year rule. Front bearings/Hubs every 2 calendar years. Now you've got me all paranoid!

known

iTrader: (1)

lol

I never had issue with the Integra hubs but switching to the smaller bearing that these dinky Civic hubs run, I wanted piece of mind as I'm pushing the limits.

The Integra hubs I just took off were still pretty solid after 3 years of intense abuse (minimal play). I think you run the small Civic/Crx hub right?

rice_classic

Yes because ITA trim. Less power, less speed, less heat from braking. But still have the big stickies so hub is still a concern.

I've always gone out of my way to spend the extra $$ on the nicer bearings like SKF or Timken or even Nachi from the dealer but I assume if you're going to be replacing the grease in them it may not be worth spending the extra $30/bearing.

known

iTrader: (1)

Thats my thought as well, the question I have is the actual ball bearings and materials used?

Are the ***** and inner race a weak point possibly on a lower quality piece?

rice_classic

I'm definitely not the person to ask. From mere speculation I would say that if there were any quality differences it might be in tolerances, quality of grease, quality of inner race (plastic ball holder) and perhaps quality of the seal.

kingofbattle909

iTrader: (6)

miamirice

Nice work!

Flak

markertoo

I don't want to hijack, but I have road raced for years, and sold race parts as well. I have seen a couple of reasons for de-lamination, and the primary reason was that the pads were dropped before installation, either by an installer or when in shipping.

On some other situations, the driver is too aggressive on the brake pedal. Instead of a very quick squeeze, the pedal is hit too hard, too quickly. The backing plate actually starts to bend, and the material de-laminates that way.

IF you had pictures, I might be able to see.

On a side note, I made a bearing packer with 2 metal discs - one disc would be larger than the outside race, the other, smaller disc would be the size of the inner race. I used some zerk fittings to force grease into the bearings, and force out the old grease. I would simply remove the seals, and clamp the bearing between the 2 discs. Then, using a grease gun, you can re-grease the bearing without taking it apart.

rice_classic

to Known: Sorry for the threadjacking... Pics should resize shortly as well.

Yes, No and yes. It's not a matter of "hitting" too hard but the pushing on the pedal too hard, past the pads ability to decelerate the rotor when very hot. That did not happen in my case but I have done that before.

It's not that I'm too aggressive, it's that I just need race stuff to work in race conditions!. I understand limits of things but if I can't operate things at the limits then I don't need to be spending $$ on them as their competitors work better at the limits. ST 42's and 43's, Cobalt XR1 and XR2, PFC 83 and 80 compound. None of them failed even when I knew I was operating those beyond their limits up to and including bending the heck out of the backing plate... still no failure.

The failure occurred at a track that is very hard on brakes, however the failure happened 10 minutes into a session before the pads were at a point anywhere near over heating, bending etc. I'm not the only one to report this. When I got burnt by Cobalt's customer service I starting researching every other brake pad extensively and found that I'm not the only one who's been bit by the DTC delamination. It is a pretty well known issue. They are great pads but...

I still have a set on the car right now but it might be the last set I will buy. The bummer is that they're cheap (half the price of my preferred pad) AND they're available on Amazon which is even better. Oh well.

Tyson

higher quality bearings will mean higher quality in roundness in the ball and smoother ground finish on the race, what matters most in a ball bearing.

its still worth buying the better bearing even if youre repacking them.

known

iTrader: (1)

No worries on the brake pad stuff. Im glad you posted it, I hope that doesnt happen this weekend or next!

Tyson, what is your exp with Koyo? I have used the Nachi brand in the past, first time with koyo.

s1ngle

iTrader: (1)

Question: Is it possible to repack bearings after they've been pressed into a knuckle and had the hub pressed in? Can I press them out, or will I do too much damage at that point, and will just need to start over with a new bearing?

Another endurance racer here.

markertoo

Oh, I understand about the needing of something to work. I just have seen a large number of de-laminations from user issues, not the manufacturing issues. Your backing plates are not bent, so it is not the over-aggressive application I was meaning. I have absolutely no isue with using the product hard, but again, some drivers just pound the pedal.

My description of being over-aggressive did not come out well online. Imagine being told by an driver coach to turn in more gently and smoothly. One can only be SO smooth, but that is the type of finesse I am talking about - not pounding the pedal, but more of a squeeze that is very rapid, and a gradual build-up of pedal pressure, but in a VERY short amount of time. It is not about overheating the pads.

Hawk was supposed to start using litle fingers to stop delamination - I will look into that, and various companies do it. I have sold Pagid - they use a softer "pin" through the backing plate and material.

And I forgot to commend the OP about re-packing bearings - a great preventative measure, in a race car, and I used to do it as maintenence. Good write-up.

markertoo

What pad compound? Is this for an S2000/06+ Civic? Or, are these the Civic older pads? Hawk was supposed to be using their new DRS pad retainers in the DTC lately. How old are the pads - purchased within the last 2-3 years?

rice_classic

I'm going to answer your question in another thread as this has been hi-jacked enough. See you there.

rice_classic

Well known, I took your advice. I used the same Amsoil grease and Timken Bearings. I didn't take pics of my repacked bearings but it was straight forward enough.

here's my old bearings. Clearly the grease wasn't "grease" anymore and there really wasn't much there anyway. When spinning the hub freely they sounded rough and dry.

edit: I did resize these on Photobucket so they should be smaller soon.








My Hub still looked great. I hate having to do these every year. Hopefully this new Amsoil grease will give me "2 year" bearings.

exgr

whoa. is it a good idea to re-pack while the wheel bearing is still on the knuckles? i had previously thought the wheel bearing is a "one time press in" only; if you pressed them apart they should be replaced.

ps, this thread rocks.