Van Diemen style hub assembly

[petawawarace]

I am making a new set of hubs/uprights for my car, and I am copying the late Model VD design. I have a few questions about assembly as I have not used this style hub/upright yet.

1. How tight of a fit is the hub into the wheel bearing? Light press fit?
2. When bolting the hub through the bearing to either the drive flange(rear) or the retaining plate (front) using the 6 bolts, do the two pieces “bottom out” on each other to prevent preload on the wheel bearing halves? If not, what sort of preload is applied?

Thanks, Jeff

[Fred Michael]

Press fit and they bottom out

[Barry Ott]

I have a '95 VD with the same design. The Bearings in my car have a split inner race that must be preloaded to work correctly. Therefore, the two "halves" can't bottom out or the "axle" assembly never actually rides on the bearing, it will just "slide" back and forth in the inner race of the bearing and fail quickly. There must be a small gap between the two halves to preload the bearing. I've had a couple failures in this assembly and now check the torque on the six bolts on each axle after every event....

Personally, I'd use a different design. I'd consider a design from a modern car where the "axle" presses through the inner race of the bearing and a single, big shaft/nut secures the assembly. You probably can tell that I'm not a fan of the hub assembly on my car :-)

YMMV,
Barry Ott

[Steve Demeter]

If you are serious about changing check with Doug at Fast Forward as to what he can make up. I have found his work to be first class and beyond and reasonably priced. He did half shafts and stub axles and bearings for my Citation and they are still working fine.

[billtebbutt]

You could just call up David at BritainWest Motorsport and buy 4 of his 1998 (and up -check) uprights and use them. I heard the guy that knocked those off was a genius

Ok, that was a little offside. I apologize. I think we have sold almost 300 of these since1999, and we are down to our last 20 or so (and there won't be anymore!). Just cleaning up loose ends.

Maybe I will bring out the last of them to RA for the 50th!

cheers,
BT

[Rick Kirchner]

I have a '95 VD with the same design. The Bearings in my car have a split inner race that must be preloaded to work correctly. Therefore, the two "halves" can't bottom out or the "axle" assembly never actually rides on the bearing, it will just "slide" back and forth in the inner race of the bearing and fail quickly. There must be a small gap between the two halves to preload the bearing. I've had a couple failures in this assembly and now check the torque on the six bolts on each axle after every event....

Personally, I'd use a different design. I'd consider a design from a modern car where the "axle" presses through the inner race of the bearing and a single, big shaft/nut secures the assembly. You probably can tell that I'm not a fan of the hub assembly on my car :-)

YMMV,
Barry Ott

Interesting. I have a '94, changed the rear bearings out more than 10 years ago. Never check the bolts other than when I have the half shaft off for some reason. Found one loose bolt once. Never had a problem with the bearings that came with the car and haven't had a problem with the new ones either.

[petawawarace]

You could just call up David at BritainWest Motorsport and buy 4 of his 1998 (and up -check) uprights and use them. I heard the guy that knocked those off was a genius

Ok, that was a little offside. I apologize. I think we have sold almost 300 of these since1999, and we are down to our last 20 or so (and there won't be anymore!). Just cleaning up loose ends.

Maybe I will bring out the last of them to RA for the 50th!

cheers,
BT

I own my own design and machine shop, so making them wasn’t an issue. Plus these are not for a VD. They are for a Swift Formula Renault. Heading out to anodizer shortly.

[zangyomotorsports]

FYI RSport sells a tool and has some photos of the process for VD bearings.
http://www.rsport.us/Rsport_VD_Hub_Tool.html