LG Official: JAE - 10-13 September 2015

[hoppi05]

had a look round your stand a couple of times guys i didn't get an opportunity to say hello but hopefully next year i will...

[wurlycorner]

Was great to meet up with everyone again - new and old faces. Thanks to everyone that came, had a great time and that's what it's all about.

Just to finish up with the getting home malarky...
We got as far as Grantham North where I pulled over into the services to do the usual safety checks after short run to let the trailer settle in (straps, bearings etc.) and found the passenger rear bearing on the trailer was hot. Annoying 'cause all had been fine on the way up.

Backed it up the kerb to get the weight off the back wheel so I could check play and all was not well, so off came the hub cover for more investigation. All still intact, but black grease so no question that a bearing was gone, without even looking any further.

This was about half 3 on Sunday, so frantic ringing round trying to find a bearing, grease etc. ensued... Found a motor factors in Newark that had no bearing but a spare hub (unfortunately not the right one) puller and grease, so caned it back up there to get them before they closed.

For anyone local, I highly recommend them http://www.allwoods-automotive.co.uk/ - open late, 7 days a week, very helpful staff (I was trying to check bearing sizes on the phone etc.) and extremely well stocked.

Carried on stripping down.
Outer bearing was fine, rear bearing was still all together/intact, but I could see through that cage had disappeared, hence the bearing just pulled apart when trying to remove the hub.

Rear seal, rollers and the inner/outer rings of the cage (which has broken up). That's been caught just in time before catastrophic failure.

Inner race was stuck solid on the axle.

I had basic tools with me, but obviously not everything so @vtecmec kindly came back out with a hammer, blow torch, chisel and a different bearing puller but it was a no-go.

I did ring a few recovery places to see how expensive it would be, but there was no-one local available that could pick up a loaded trailer that day anyway, so fortunately I didn't even have to think about that as an option and booked into the travelodge for the night instead (do I know how to treat Lisa to some special experiences, or what )

Had to get some work done on Monday morning, then back on the parts hunt at lunch time. Various dragging around Newark, Lincoln and Grantham eventually yielded the correct rear bearing, an evil muffin gas torch (although machinemart sold me the wrong gas bottle with it ) a proper bearing puller, big cold chisel etc. and I was back on it. Just lucky it didn't absolutely drokking hammer it down with hail and pouring rain causing flash floods in the afternoon, eh?

It was a right jobby to remove. Eventually as it was getting dark I got the inner race off.
The bearing puller had grabbed and dragged on the shaft, so it didn't look too pretty;


That's part way through cleaning it all up with a file/emery cloth, ending up like this ;

And the new bearing fitted nice and smoothly
Fortunately the outer race hadn't been chewed up, so I didn't have to change that (obviously the inner and outer do need to be changed as a pair, but not in these circumstances). I couldn't get a new rear seal, so had to re-use the old one (which had been pretty mangled up, but also cleaned up ok enough to refit).

Finally rolling again at half 10 and home at half midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning.

[mercutio]

great work buddy

[h10ndr]

That sounds like a right mare....glad you got it sorted in the end, and to @vtecmec for helping out with tools, time etc.