Hi guys, just thought I'd write this up and tell you about my Locost and how it needed new rear wheel bearings and rear brake shoes. It needed the brake shoes because part of the wheel bearing failure included failure of the oil seals - which means the brake drum on the nearside was partially filled with oil.

It has a Ford Escort live rear axle so it's not straight forward! First thing I needed was a slide-hammer to enable removal of the Half-Shafts...

They're kind of hard to come by unless you want a small one for pulling dents - so I made one. It's made from some off-cuts from around the Garage plus a sheet of 6mm thick lead I happened to have lying about. In this picture I hadn't welded it up but you can see how it was made.



So after making the Slide Hammer I set to work this morning. I jacked the car and supported it with axle stands. Removed both road wheels and the brake drums. Then you have to undo the 4 x M8 bolts that hold the bearing cover plate. Once they're out you can set to with the Slide Hammer.



The Slide Hammer fits over 2 of the wheel mounting studs and I used the road wheel nuts to hold the Slide Hammer in place. A couple of good hard bangs (slide the weight down the shaft away from the axle) and the shafts come loose. You then pull them from the axle casing and mop up the oil that will spill - get ready for the Sulphur smell of the diff' oil!

The bearings are a press-fit onto the Half-Shafts so have to be cut-off along with the retaining rings. I ordered the new bearings and retaining rings from Burton Power, they're the ones with an O-ring on the outside of the bearing. Once the Half-Shafts were removed from the axle casing I took them to a mates garage were he helped me press the new bearings and retaining rings into place.



Once the new bearings and retaining rings were in place it was time to head home to clean all the brake components and rebuild both rear drumbrakes with new shoes. This picture shows the 203mm Ford Escort drumbrake built up without the Half-Shafts in. Leaving the Half-Shafts out makes it easier to get the shoe and springs/adjuster assembly into place.



Then the Half-Shafts can go back in. You apply some grease to the splines on the Diff' end and the O-rings and the outside of the bearings and then slide the Half-Shaft in. It needs an occasional wiggle to get the end of the Half-Shaft down the tube and then finally align and slide the splines into the Differential gears. It's very easy and doesn't need much force until the bearing starts to slide into the end of the axle casing.

When it does it's best to refit the Slide Hammer and use that to drive the bearing into the end of the axle casing. The final millimetre or two can be pulled up using the 4 x M8 bolts that hold the bearing cover plate.



So drums back on, road wheels back on and then the other side - which is exactly the same. So no more pictures except this one...



ALL DONE and back on all four wheels. In total the job took from 9:00 until about 16:30 but about 3 hours were spent chatting and drinking coffee at my mates garage. In total 'working time' I'd say it took approximately 4 hours.

In the pictures of the brakes, you've got the shoes on the wrong way around. The leading/trailing edges are the wrong way and could lead to them grabbing.

Thought exactly the same thing Adithorp

Thanks for posting - have you been for a run out yet? Have those bearings stopped your oil leak?