Matt Brannon - Midwest Bayless
Mad.Matt
A fellow member posted about his problems with replacing 4-Spd bearings in his X19. He said when the hubs were pressed in, they tightened up.
He sent the assemblies to us to service, and we found the problem.
For the uninitiated, it is a head scratcher. You simply don't know what you don't know.
His problem was that he was trying to mix the components from two different hub sealing designs.
Fiat started with a hub sealing arrangement using the standard V-ring seal and hex lock ring ("System A"), then moved to a different arrangement involving a lock ring with integral seal (System "B") around 1977.
The different styles of lock rings require a unique tool unless you're lucky enough to have one of the Starker tools with both sizes in one.
It is difficult to say “this year Fiat uses Design A vs. Design B” because Fiat changed the design around 1977, but introduced it at different times depending on the model (X19, Scorp, 128), and most service shops used Design B as the default for service, so a lot of cars can be found with different styles at different corners.
Lastly, most replacement hubs and CVs currently in production come equipped with the “metal collar” as shown on the left, that has to be removed if you’re using the original style collars and rings on the right.
Hopefully the pix explain.
-M
-Matt
He sent the assemblies to us to service, and we found the problem.
For the uninitiated, it is a head scratcher. You simply don't know what you don't know.
His problem was that he was trying to mix the components from two different hub sealing designs.
Fiat started with a hub sealing arrangement using the standard V-ring seal and hex lock ring ("System A"), then moved to a different arrangement involving a lock ring with integral seal (System "B") around 1977.
The different styles of lock rings require a unique tool unless you're lucky enough to have one of the Starker tools with both sizes in one.
It is difficult to say “this year Fiat uses Design A vs. Design B” because Fiat changed the design around 1977, but introduced it at different times depending on the model (X19, Scorp, 128), and most service shops used Design B as the default for service, so a lot of cars can be found with different styles at different corners.
Lastly, most replacement hubs and CVs currently in production come equipped with the “metal collar” as shown on the left, that has to be removed if you’re using the original style collars and rings on the right.
Hopefully the pix explain.
-M
-Matt
