Series II hub seals

Safety inspection

I took the car for its annual safety inspection, which it passed with no real issues. I took it to a brake shop that also does these inspections, since I had a pulsating brake pedal from an out-of-round drum that needed some work. It also pulled to the left a bit.

After machinining one fo the drums and readjusting, these two known issues were fixed. It then passed the inspection on the first attempt. However, the shop noticed that there was a small oil leak from the hub seal, which was starting to contaminate the brake shoes.

Luckily it was early on, and the shoes didn’t need to be replaced, but I did need to get the seals replaced quickly to avoid a safety issue (and having to replace the shoes).

Hub seal replacement

This was a pretty straightforeard job, and I decided to do both front wheels while I was in there. The distance piece for the bearing sleeve, that the hub rides on, was something I didn’t replace during the initial restoration because I didn’t realise how important they were for the hub inner seal to work correctly. This is the better side - as you can see, they were both very worn.

The process was basically drama-free, except for the left-hand brake backing plate not wanting to separate from the stub axle, and me getting my thumb with a hammer in the process of separating them. One trick I found was to hang the backing plate off the steering arms, to avoid having to remove them (or hang them off the brake hose, which I don’t like).

Some more random photos from the process:

I took it for a run today, and it all seems to work well. The brakes need bleeding for some reason - possibly something the shop did, but that’s a very minor deal and I’ve got a friend visiting next week to help with that.