Auto Hub Rebuild

[CodePoet]

Ok before I start I KNOW that there is a manual conversion, and it's VASTLY better than the auto hubs. I'm going to be doing an sas in a year or two though i'm i'm not going to throw 200 dollars into hubs that will be on the garage floor sooner than later. Ok so here goes! I searched of course and found this link to the auto hub rebuild kit. My auto hubs are fine right now but this spring I will be putting in new wheel bearings and while i'm working I think it might be worth the little bit of money to go ahead and rebuild them before they fail me when I need them most. Anyway my thought is that there are plastic pieces in the hubs that tend to wear and break over time. My father has been a machinist for over 30 years and has access to any mill you could imagine....why not recreate those plastic pieces but with steel. Is there any reason a piece HAS to be plastic? Or am I wrong thinking there are plastic pieces that tend to wear/break in the auto hubs? Yeah I guess it could provide a safety factor. Any thoughts? Kris i'm curious to hear from you since you rebuild them all the time...i'm not committed to doing this i'm mainly just curious.

Later
CP

 

[agzaretzka]

followup

Just curious if you've found out any more about this, done a rebuild, machined any parts, tested, etc...

I'm a new owner of a 91 EB and want to keep my auto hubs working well, if possible.

Thanks.

 

[slickjer]

I've done it.

I work in a machine shop with many cnc machines etc. I tried remaking that plastic part out of aluminum on my first gen, and sure enough it didn't break like the plastic part did. It broke another peice in my hub instead. So yes, you could make them out of steel but if aluminum is strong enough to break the other parts in there steel would do the same. Also, plastic is self-lubricating. This is vital on parts that rub together constantly like that plastic gear does so it might be best to just either buy a couple new plastic parts from the dealer if you're lucky enough to find them, or to remake them from a stronger plastic is your father's shop has vacuum vices etc so the plastic doesn't move while being machined. Hope this helps.
-- Jeremy