Front hubs

[Tony Press]

Hi all, I found, as a relatively new A7 owner, that on my first decent drive, applying the brakes sternly caused a massive dive to the left. I ascertained that there was grease on the brake shoes from, I guess, copious enthusiastic greasing. Now as I say, as a new Austin owner, never having rebuilt Austin brakes before, I find that Mr Doug Woodrow in his otherwise excellent manual glibly states "Remove the split pins through the hole provided in hub" (page F2-2). Oh really. The holes may be adequate when inserting the pins, but when extracting them it seems damned (oops) near impossible. Even with pounding on a tiny screwdriver not designed for such treatment, I can't get it to budge in an upwards and outwards direction. In my younger and more enthusiastic days, and with 50 year younger axles and whatnot, I would just unwind the nut and shear the pin. (That was on prewar Fords incidentally.) Would that be permissible behaviour today, by chance, by someone growing as frustrated as I? I really need to get these hubs and backing plates off. Thanks for any assistance, even if from afar.

After taking off the brake drum you could use the hub puller to draw off the hub leaving both bearings and Felt Housing in place on the axle stub,  then you have a clear go at the split pin. If you just unwind the nut and shear the pin you could damage the thread.

After the nut is off put the hub back and install the drum screws attaching it to the Felt Housig and again use the hub puller to draw off the bearings  
 
After cleaning out the grease from the hub and bearings, if the bearings look and feel alright (they are well oversize) just fill the bearings with a lithium based multi purpose No 2 grease. Never grease the hub as the handbook advises.

The usually well worn Felt Seal is a b*gg*r to replace so you might fit sealed bearings and save any messing about. 

Leave the steel felt spacer in place to correctly locate the large bearing in the hub  

Cheers, Tony.