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So I made a bit of a mistake. While having the wheel hub off and cleaning parts up, I wrapped the spindle in masking tape so I didn't damage it. It seems that may have been a mistake. The tape held moisture and now I have rust. CRAPPERS!!
How should I clean this off? Can I clean it? Is it ruined? I was thinking steel wool, but I'm not sure.
Those surfaces just hold bearing races. None of them are actual bearing races. Clean up with sandpaper or Emery cloth and it will be fine. You spend a 1/2 an hour on that with Emery cloth you are not going to make it a 1/2 of a 1000th smaller. And it will clean up in about 30 seconds.
So I used a Dremel Versa cleaning tool and a scotchbrite attachment pad. and got this result.
I was planning to use the amsoil meter protector also. I think that will work OK.
Doesn't the bearing rest on the angled part of this spindle and roll on that surface? I would think that needs to be pretty smooth for the bearings not to wear wrong.
The bearing only slides along the spindle to get in place. The actual SPINNING occurs when the roller bearings rotate against the race in the hub. Those are machine surfaces to tight tolerances. The spindle area touching the inside diameter should not spin at all. Only loose enough to slide the bearing assy on and off.
Hey... I just noticed something in your pic..... that upper ball joint is installed wrong?
It supposed to drop down through the top of the control arm.. not come up from the bottom like that.
Also, is that grease boot .. actually blue or is that the plastic protective shield that comes to protect the rubber boot? I seem to recall plastic protective sheilds for shipping only .. but maybe you just got blue rubber boots?
Last edited by mysixtynine; Mar 18, 2020 at 09:43 PM.
Hey... I just noticed something in your pic..... that upper ball joint is installed wrong?
It supposed to drop down through the top of the control arm.. not come up from the bottom like that.
Also, is that grease boot .. actually blue or is that the plastic protective shield that comes to protect the rubber boot? I seem to recall plastic protective sheilds for shipping only .. but maybe you just got blue rubber boots?
The spindle looks great! The rolling bearing surfaces are the (replaceable) bearing races inside the hub. You should be all set for that, as they probably still had grease on them, but make sure they are smooth.
Last edited by Bikespace; Mar 18, 2020 at 11:52 PM.
Excellent catches! I will have to correct the ball joint. Sadly that means I need to take almost everything apart again. Dangit! I thought I was doing so good. But I'm getting pretty good at it.
Yes those are Mevotech ball joints. The uppers had the blue boot and the lowers had the black boot. They are metal and not plastic, so we will see how they wear.
The sleeves in the rotor are fine. Put one on last night it rolled nicely. Got to use the bearing packer tool I bought. Didn't realize how much parts cleaner I would use getting the old grease out. Probably didn't have to do that, but it made me feel better.
Maybe I should have bought the pickle fork instead of going and getting it from the parts store every time.
Newbie wheel hub mistake. Help needed
