Rear wheel bearing/hub replacement warning

[Dave Kegel]

Hello all,

I ran into a problem I thought I'd share with the list. It could be one of the things that only happens to me (seems as though there are a lot in this category), but just in case I thought I'd warn others.

I recently replaced the rear wheel hubs on my '90. As long as you have a 36mm socket, it's a very easy job. No press or special tools needed. I did this in the hotel parking lot in Indy during the convention. I purchased the hubs from Napa. Things went well during the install, but I was lucky.

Here's the problem: Once installed, the outside of the new hub (where the wheel mounts) is just ever so slightly further inboard then the OEM hub. The problem this causes is that a brand new, full thickness rear rotor will hit the inside of the caliper bracket. I got lucky in Indy because my rear rotors were worn enough where they just barely fit. In fact, the passenger side was slightly rubbing. The occasional odd noises is what prompted me to take another look when I got home. My rotors were rather beat from a previous encounter with pad rivets, so I bought a new set, which is where I ran into the problem. Just to be sure, I went to a different store and bought a second set of rear rotors, which also rubbed

What I ended up doing is taking the caliper bracket to the grinder and removed the portion of the brackets that were hitting the rotor. All seems fine now, but I wanted to let everyone know.

Please note that these were Napa hubs. A hub from AutoZone, Pep Boys, Advance, etc. may not have this issue.

Any questions, please let me know.

Dave Kegel

 

[pjtoledo]

There are 3 different rear hubs for a SHO.
First off, the 89 is unique to 89 only, seperate style bearings, they fit 89 only.
Then along comes the 90, 91, 92. These rear systems are vented rotors and have a thin hat/center section. 93 and newer have the solid rotors which are thicker in the center/hat section than the 90~92 by about 3mm. The 3mm thicker rotor center section pushed the wheel out 3mm. To keep the wheel where it started Ford installed hubs on the 93~95 that were 3mm shorter. So, there are 2 different types of hubs out there, tall ones for the 90~92, and short ones for the 93~95.
Moral of the story? The wrong parts won't work, they cause the rotor to hit the bracket.
There are ways to "mix 'n match" parts to fine tune the wheel placement, I won't go into that now.


Perry

 

[Dave Kegel]

Thanks. I called NAPA back and got some more detail on this, but forgot to post it here. While they do list different part numbers for the earlier vs later hubs, they are now superceeding the earlier 90 - 92 hub with the 93-up version.

Hopefully it's just NAPA doing this and not the other parts houses.

Dave

 

[sdpatt]

I experienced this situation with the AutoZone hubs on my 1991. I used the same grinding solution.

 

[Ishodu]

Just sounds like you guys got hubs for cars meant to have solid rotors on them.

 

[pjtoledo]

Just sounds like you guys got hubs for cars meant to have solid rotors on them.

Not me, I have a 92 and a 95, plus left-over parts from an 89 and a 93 I dismantled a few years ago. Spent a little time comparing rear brakes and the ways to mix 'n match 'em.
Ford has both short and tall hubs available.

Perry

 

[Dave Kegel]

Just sounds like you guys got hubs for cars meant to have solid rotors on them.

Well, right. We (I) did. Reason being, that's all that some places are selling now. The 90 - 92 hubs are not available.

Dave

 

[shomesomesho]

I was able to find a pair of vented rear '91 rotors at Autozone 4 months ago.

 

[Dave Kegel]

Yes. It's the hubs we were talking about, not rotors.

Dave

 

[JrodSVT]

So can where does one find the right hub? Must we go straight to Ford or does one of the parts stores have the right hubs?

 

[jason8225]

So can where does one find the right hub? Must we go straight to Ford or does one of the parts stores have the right hubs?

If anybody can find it from a Ford source, Torrie at fordpartsnetwork.com can.

 

[masho95]

So what kind of noise was the rubbing creating? I recently changed all my rear brake stuff as well as the right rear hub. And sometime in the process of changing everything I started to get a squeaking noise coming from the rear. Sounds just like dragging brakes and will also go away when the brakes are full pressed. Just wondering if the rubbing noise because of those hubs was anything like my problem?

 

[Dave Kegel]

It would be a metal on metal sound. If you have a 95 you should be fine. The problem would be with the 90 - 92 cars.

 

[Bizzy]

Marcel and I experienced a similar issue on my 91 over the summer. I'd snapped a few studs off my hub so when he came down he brought one from a 93 (?) I think it was. In any case, when it was put on the wheel wouldn't even turn, much less grind. The studs in his hub were different also, so we couldn't pound those out and put them in my 91 hub.

Our resolution was to get a few counter shaft transmission shims and place it behind the hub. It was a perfect fit and resolved the issue. Of course, not everyone has those parts handy when doing something like that.

 

[shojuan]

There are 3 different rear hubs for a SHO.
First off, the 89 is unique to 89 only, seperate style bearings, they fit 89 only.

Woohoo! 89 baby...Grease mine with synthetic Redline CV-2 grease. The best there is.

Sealed bearings bah!