my car limped home from the track today

[kiteman]

Lets see, where to start,
Firstly I was getting strange ABS type sensation when braking. It was ever so slight, and as the rain was bucketing down I didn't pay too much attention to it.
Then approaching a U turn the brake pedal went rock hard, the ABS was thumping, but with no brakes whatsoever.
I managed to get around the U turn, and headed straight back to the paddock to investigate.
After jacking the car I went to remove the left front wheel and found the hub nut had worked its way loose and was held on by 2 threads only. Was I lucky or what.
Anyhow, I tightened it back up and put in a new split pin. Ok slight inconvenience, but back on the track after 30 minutes. I accellerated out the pitlane at a fair pace and thought I felt a slight clutch slip, then it disappeared. My imagination playing tricks maybe, not so, A few laps later and the clutch slip gets excessively worse.
Ok thats my track day over, so I load up the car and head for home, at an easy pace, as its only 3 miles.
Halfway I get a clunking from the front suspension, and pulled in to check. Surely that hub nut hadn't worked its way loose again ??.
Yes there it was, the hub nut split pin was sheared off again and there was a little play in the bearing.
So I limped it home and parked it up.
What a sh1te st patricks day.

[kiteman]

Oh yes meant to ask a question, has anyone got a racing clutch kit for sale.
Preferably new.

[The Vee]

Well yes and no! The whole assembly didn'nt come off. Maybe lucky St Patricks Day. Anyway, check the splines on the drive shaft / hub. When they slip this can happen and will need replacing. As for the cause? many and varied, but can be general fatigue if worked hard a lot (tracking) or initial collapse of wheel bearing or spacer has given a bit. Worth checking too that the actual flange hasn't cracked.

[adaxo]

Im not will help much there, but GOD are you live 3 miles away from track!!!??? how lucky is that.

[Davezj]

Wow, so much happened in one day.
I have never heard of a hub nut coming undo.

[Wodjno]

Wow, so much happened in one day.
I have never heard of a hub nut coming undo.

Twice /help

[The Vee]

Tommie, have you had a good look yet? Just interested coz if the shaft is slipping in the spline that could feel like a slipping clutch.

[kiteman]

Tommie, have you had a good look yet? Just interested coz if the shaft is slipping in the spline that could feel like a slipping clutch.

No Andy, I just parked in the garage and figured I'd look at it later, but family committments took over, so I'll have to wait till late sunday before I can take a look.

[kiteman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHcygS0hs6g
The above is a link showing how miserable it was on the track today.
At times I would have liked to have been able to see the car in front, occasionally.
My brake failure happened around 9min.30,

[PaO'R]

christ twas well wet there!!

was going to go watch time attack but was unable to in the end.

hope you get sorted easy.

[kiteman]

Tommie, have you had a good look yet? Just interested coz if the shaft is slipping in the spline that could feel like a slipping clutch.

Andy, looks like you are correct. While I dont have a 32mm socket to remove the hub nut, I did notice the hub is turning freely without the drive shaft moving.
Obviously I'm hoping its the splines on the bearing and not the shaft itself that are shot.
Thanks again for your sound advice.
Tommie

[kiteman]

I borrowed a 32mm hub socket and look at what I found,It was the wheel bearing all right, it completely sheared in two.
Luckily I have a spare, from a legnum I broke last year.

This is the second time this has happened to me. Heres a link to my other post back in jan 2011

http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?55146-Grumbling-in-front-left-wheel-solved-at-last

[Kenneth]

How tight are you doing up those hub nuts Tommie? The torque specification for them gives quite a range and it may be that you need to be going to the upper end of it. If I recall correctly, that is getting around the 180lb/ft mark, which you could be hard pressed to do without a very big torque wrench. I know my half inch wrench won't go that high...

edit: Ok, so the workshop manual (Evo, but I believe they have the same hubs) gives the following range: 159 lb/ft to 202 lb/ft. That is VERY tight :P

[The Vee]

Wow, broken off like that...... fatigue corrosion bad manufacture who knows? but the forces put on that shoulder are of course immense when tracking. One thing I do notice is that one or two of those wheel studs don't look fully seated. That "could" cause the wheel to be flexing under load when cornering which would certainly put more stress on that shoulder.

[Davezj]

looks like the drive shaft is knackered as well.
you have stipped the splines on the end of the shaft that goes through the bit of the hub that has broken off, so if you just replace the hub it will break again undo high load as you have no support from the shaft any more.

you might also find it a bit difficult to get the drive shaft out of the rest of the hub as the splines have been floded over on themselves so the spline in the hub might not have room to slide down the groves in the shaft.
if this is the case then either cut the remaonder of the shaft off to allow the hub to slide off or cut the slines across with an angle grinder, then grind the rest of the damaged spline flat against body of the shaft. the hub should slide off easily.
hopefully you will not have to do any of this this and the hub will slide off easily.

[White Lightning]

Looks like you are going to be busy replacing bits there Tommie. Glad nothing bad happened on track!

[Davezj]

tommie have you had a hub break before, i seem to remember reading about another instance of a hub breaking recently.

[kiteman]

tommie have you had a hub break before, i seem to remember reading about another instance of a hub breaking recently.

Yeah Dave it happened on my last car about 15 months ago. I featured the link in a post earlier but here it is again.
http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthr...lp-needed-guys

[kiteman]

Wow, broken off like that...... fatigue corrosion bad manufacture who knows? but the forces put on that shoulder are of course immense when tracking. One thing I do notice is that one or two of those wheel studs don't look fully seated. That "could" cause the wheel to be flexing under load when cornering which would certainly put more stress on that shoulder.

See what you're saying Andy, I'll certainly ensure the replacement bearing will have them all in fully, though I've not done any work on that hub before. I know this happened to me before, but that was on my last (white) VR4. Strangely at the time I was reporting irregular clutch slip then also.

[kiteman]

How tight are you doing up those hub nuts Tommie? The torque specification for them gives quite a range and it may be that you need to be going to the upper end of it. If I recall correctly, that is getting around the 180lb/ft mark, which you could be hard pressed to do without a very big torque wrench. I know my half inch wrench won't go that high...

edit: Ok, so the workshop manual (Evo, but I believe they have the same hubs) gives the following range: 159 lb/ft to 202 lb/ft. That is VERY tight :P

Thanks for that info Kenneth, that seems like a very high torque indeed, but my torque wrench goes to 200ft/lb so I should be there or thereabouts.

[kiteman]

Tommie, have you had a good look yet? Just interested coz if the shaft is slipping in the spline that could feel like a slipping clutch.
YAY, I'm back on the road again, I managed to aquire a driveshaft and bearing locally from a guy who is breaking a legnum.
Coincidently he put it up on a local site only last week, and he asked for £80 for both.
Anyway, I worked on it during the week, and this morning at 10am I took it for a test drive. Its as sweet as a nut, everything feels as tight as it should.
Thanks to all the guys who offered advice.
Also,thanks for your advice again Andy, you were bang on the money.
Also thanks to Nick Mann for taking my call during the week and putting my mind at ease regard the driveshaft.

[Spirit]

Good to see it's all sorted Tommie, and thank god you managed to get home safely in one piece.

[swinks]

I know from my mate who's quite old school car mechanic that hub bearing needs to be tighten again after 600 miles from fitting.

[The Vee]

No worries Tommie, glad you're up 'n running again.

[kiteman]

I know from my mate who's quite old school car mechanic that hub bearing needs to be tighten again after 600 miles from fitting.

Thanks Tomasz, I do that after 600 miles

[kiteman]

No worries Tommie, glad you're up 'n running again.

Yeah Andy, just went back over my original post and your reply, you were right, I was very lucky indeed.