Just a quick one. I got my alloy cortina hubs yesterday from Rally design plus a set of wheel bearings. No fitting instruction are supplied but since the metal is soft compared to the normal steel I didn’t want to hammer the bearing shells in as normal.

So instead I heated the hubs up in the kitchen oven at 240 degs and the bearing shells just drop in snugly with some gentle tapping with a pair of drifts (two table spoons), finally gripping as they heat up inside the hub before moving onto the next shell.

It did take a few hours to cool down before I could fit bearing races. The quality of the machined surfaces is pretty good, especially where the shells fit so it all worked just fine

Oh and thanks all for the advice on getting the hubs

[Edited on 3/9/09 by Mr Whippy]

nice when things work well isn't

yeah one of the few times things go to plan

When I did mine, I actually planned a bit more in advance and put the bearings and shells in the freezer the night before doing them. I used gas mark 6 for the hubs and I haven't got a clue what that is in deg F. Mine were still a little snug going in as the anodising appears to be quite substantial!

I tried all that with mine and they still didnt fit - took them to a garage who said there wasnt a chance of them fitting as I needed the hubs skimmed - luckily I know a man with a lathe