64 rear hub assembly

[Leonard M.]

I'm trying to rebuild the rear hubs on my 64 coupe and they will not come apart. Can any one shed some light on this for me . thanks lenny E-mail lmurph61@aol.com

[Harry S.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

Lenny, I assume your talking about the T-Arms. Most of us do not have the proper tools to take them apart, and that includes me. The spindle carrier and the four bolts are tough to get out. Why not go to an automotive machine shop and have them take the T-Arms apart. Then you do the rest.

[Gary R.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

The bearings are pressed on the spindle. You need a knocker tool to drive out the spindle, a setup tool to see what the endplay is and a good way of setting up the endplay. I grind the shims to size and you can find the whole deal here to help you.

http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77000

[Harry S.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

Gary, nice article/post.

Thanks

[Steve L.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

I'm just finishing my TA rebuilds using Gary's posts. These posts were a huge help. Thanks Gary. Grinding the shims to size worked really well.

A couple of points:
-I noticed you have some I beams to support the hub while pressing the spindle out. It's hard to get I beams in that size, so I made a fixture using 4 inch angle iron. A lot easier to get. More pictures of your press set-up would be helpful.

-In your differential rebuild section, you mentioned using permatex 2 for sealing the pinion to prevent water from migrating through the splines.
Is this not a problem as well with the U joint hub on the rear spindle?

-Your suggestion of using csk 3/8-24 screws, 5/8 long is great(NCRS-close your ears) however getting these screws is near impossible. I checked locally and in the big screw cataloges. Looks like I'll be getting a longer one and cutting to size. And forget stainless, finding that is even worst.

-Have you priced a countersink 3/4" dia. to drill out the disk rivet hole for the above screw. These are north of $50.

In any case, these are all minor points. I can't express how helpful those postings are. Thanks.

[Gary R.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

Steve,
Glad the threads helped you, that why I posted them. Hope you're tuning & polishing the posi if you go that far into it. If you do you'll cut down the yoke endplay to nothing and will be able to grind the yokes to the endplay I set them up to. A stock posi rebuild may not offer that option.

You can find I beam from a recyclers and local scraps yards, at least I can around here. I don't use that too much anymore though. I just support the arm and drive out the spindle with the knocker tool and 5 lb hammer. I reserve the press for installs only now.

#2 on the pinion splines to prevent oil from working out not water from getting in. No need for it on the rear spindles, you have a seal and shield on them. I don't like or use the flat edge seals only CR brand which cost double the flat edge ones.

I can get you the flat heads I use or any other part I use, just email me. No need for SS bolts but I do use SS shim stock and it's about $60 a kit from industrial suppliers.

Yes counter sinks are $50 give or take but cheaper and easier then riveting or going without anything but the lugnuts to hold the runout in place. The runout can change 003-006" torquing wheels on, I checked this on a few setups. Once the rotor is riveted or bolted on then it will stay in range and I prefer the bolts over rivets. I like to set them under 003" total runout, the ones I just did with faced spindles and new rotors were out 016" and I got them to 002"
Look for countersinks at flea markets and swap meets as well.

[Alan D.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

Gary, Looking to do my 64 - everything is out. How have you pressed the axle out without distorting the drum brake backing plate? I find only 5/8" between the plate and bearing support which leaves very little meat to hold the support and that's mostly the ears and bolt holes, so not very happy trying that.

[Gary R.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

Gary, Looking to do my 64 - everything is out. How have you pressed the axle out without distorting the drum brake backing plate? I find only 5/8" between the plate and bearing support which leaves very little meat to hold the support and that's mostly the ears and bolt holes, so not very happy trying that.

Forget the press and use the knocker and hammer. Properly done and it will come out in 4-5 shots. The arm in my thread is off a 64 in fact.

[Steve L.]

Re: 64 rear hub assembly

Gary,
My original rear bearing shims and spacer were bang on parallel and the faces on both looked like they were polished. The Dr. Rebuild shims were horrible. They were stamped sheetmetal with rough edges and the mating surfaces were as-is sheetmetal. Originally they sold 9 shims, but now they crossed out the 9 and wrote in 7 spacers. The 2 missing once were closer to what I needed. In any case, I think those kits are useless since it's near impossible to get the right thickness in a kit. I ended up sending out my original shims and grinding down to size since I needed a smaller thickness.

I'm confused by your seals response. The outer seal is a 45*running on the spindle 45* feature and the inner seal is flat running on the universal hub, i.e. only the inner one is flat?

The only other option I see instead of using the csk screw on the disk rotor to hub instead of the rivets is a 9/16 bolt head milled down to a thickness of 0.150" for clearance. Looks like a 9/16 socket barely fits inside the emboss. Any other screw head type that I checked wouldn't work since milling the heads would remove the tool engagment feature. I don't care for csk heads since they fight tolerance with other csk heads. The screw head wants to sit in only 1 position because of the taper of the csk. The other screw centerlines would need to be machined bang on. On the otherhand , a pan head type of screw can float to take up tolerances. BTW, on my original rotors the rivet emboss centerline and the the rivet hole centerline are way off. I wonder if the factory drilled the rivet holes on the rotor and spindle as an assembly. With a bolt, the originality of the rotor is not ruined. If you want, you can always replace it with a rivet, even with the threaded spindle...just some thoughts.

How much torque do you put on the csk screws?