Took my front wheels off to paint the calipers yesterday and I was shocked to discover how loose they actually were. I was undoing them with ease with just a normal ratchet, and 2 of the bolts were just turning. After jacking up and removing the wheel I have discovered the threads inside the hub have had it. As have the two bolts. Same story for the other side aswell there is a duff thread on the front left. After painting the front calipers I thought I'd do the rear ones aswell whilst I thought about what to do for the threads on the front. Anyway there is also a thread on the rear right hub that has also had it. So all in all out of the four hubs there is 4 threads that are duff.
Now I know a new hub would be very expensive and after a little reading on the internet I have read about helicoiling, I already knew about this but was a little unsure about it as it's on the wheel hubs.
Anyway has anyone had it done and would you recommend me doing that instead of buying new hubs which I really don't want to do.
Scrap yard or eBay replace with second hand ones . Sounds like someone has had big wheels and short bolts :tut:
You can get complete hubs with uprights not to expensive.
Check on the price of repair first against replacement .
Don't risk your life or others by cutting corners though. :thumbs:
There is also rgwm member on here Autolusso and others that can help with decent parts.
A guy I got some stuff off who's reasonable to Italia_auto_parts he's on eBay.
Tell any your member and they are normally very fair .
Good luck let us know what you did .
My concern with helicoils is the fact they don't have anything to but up to as the hub is a straight through tapped hole .
Helicoils are slightly sprung so the grip between the insert and hub will be stronger than the thread and bolt.
I work on Rolls Royce aircraft engines for a living and every threaded hole in a casting if it doesnt have a nut or captive nut is helicoiled, and they dont come loose or undone.
Righto, I have a few people I know of who may be able to help me out so will get on the phone to them tomorrow. As it's only one thread on each hub (apart from the front right with two) I reckon I will give the helicoil or threaded insert a go. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow anyway!
Having done a bit of googling, I've seen 'Time-Serts' mentioned a few times. A few people reckon these are stronger than Helicoils. Anyone have anything to say about these ?
I will take the man from Rolls Royce 's word for it . I do suspect it is a mater of doing the job properly though.
Does the amount of missing metal make a difference to the helicoils . What I'm fumbling at is there a point where it just won't have enough to bite into and how do you check.
I would trust your judgement but how do you know if someone else doesn't know.
The threads aren't in a terrible state, it's right at the end of the thread when I'm trying to tighten them up with the ratchet they just keep turning. But up to that point they go in ok and don't seem too loose.
Yeah the problem I think is that you need to re tap the hole to fit the helicoil and I was just concerned about size and your bolts.
You did check its not the bolt threads I suppose?
Any way had a wheel come off in the middle of town once at low speed and would not want that at speed or round a corner . I'm probably being over cautious . I have used helicoils but not for anything that serious.
I'd have no worries using Helicoils - in most applications they are stronger than the original thread. May not be the cheapest option, but certainly the most convenient, as it can be done without dismantling.
Plenty of people offering a mobile Helicoiling service - I've never used him myself, but Kevin Moss in Offerton, Stockport, has a good reputation (Firefox is reporting his website as an attack page at the moment!).
The kit looks fine, but as said, its rather expensive.
I can't remember the depth of the hub, but you may be better off buying a kit from ebay, which has the right depth helicoils that you need, the kit from machine mart only comes with 1/2inch deep, and 3/4inch.
Update: had a friend off my dads come over today who is a mobile engineer. Anyway after running a tap through all the threads both rear hubs now appear to be ok. The front left seems ok now too. Front right will need a helicoil at some point in near future. Should be ok for now. Got some new bolts today as well. Guy who came round explained how garages with their impact guns chew the threads up and give them real stick. Especially these garages with young lads working for them. (Not that I'm an oldie ) also told me not to use a long extension bar and using the spare wheel spanner is sufficient. At the end of the day, why would they include the spare wheel at that size if it wouldn't do them up tigh enough. Lesson of the day don't over tighten and impact guns can be bad news!
It's not the impact guns that do the damage, it's idiots who don't thread the bolts in by hand first.They just put the bolt in the socket and fire it home. You need to screw in by hand a few turns to make sure it's threaded properly, then use the gun. It's just poor technique.
Still haven't properly sorted this, I still have one bolt that isn't tightening up right. It feels like another half turn and it will completely strip the thread. I've looked for helicoil kits on eBay but the longest coil they have is 16mm. For my wheel bolt thread I need more like 22 mm I think it was. Does anybody else know where I can get one from with 22mm coils ?
You can't helicoil the bolt so the length of the bolt isn't relevant. You're repairing the thread in the hub so measure the thickness of the hub at that point and get a helicoil to suit. 16mm long should be enough.
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