GU Hub Flex

[frenzy]

Hey All!

I went out with the 4WD club on the weekend and had a nice little scenic drive on the Saturday arvo, few beers around the fire on Sat night and then some tough hill climbs and rock hopping on Sunday.

We went through a bit of mud on Sat so my wheels and hubs were "painted" a light brown colour.

On Sunday, I gave the GU a pretty hard time i.e. lots of wheel spin, wheels in the air, bouncing around (bit of panel damage) trying to get up a steep hill. (Another guy in a GU broke a CV) Anyway, when I was airing up again to hit the tarmac for the drive home I noticed this...

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee518/fieldfrenzy/IMG_0852.jpg

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee518/fieldfrenzy/IMG_0853.jpg

My theory:
The mud dried overnight and then popped off when the hubs experienced a bit of flexing and stress on Sat morning. Didn't think they would move that much really. Maybe I should nip up those bolts!

What do you reckon?

[97_gq_lwb]

I have seen hub savers on ebay and wondered if they were worth buying by the look of it they might be .
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nissan-Patrol-GQ-GU-Front-Hub-Saver-Rings-/180933315000?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a207749b8

[Silver]

Hey Fren2y, there is a lot to look at there with mud, no mud, places where mud has been. And I'm confused.

Could you be a bit more specific about what you noticed?? :-)

[frenzy]

Where the outer (free wheeling) hub meets the wheel hub (an almost straight line of clean metal underneath the wheel nuts), there appears to have been some movement causing the mud to pop off.

[frenzy]

I have seen hub savers on ebay and wondered if they were worth buying by the look of it they might be .
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nissan-Patrol-GQ-GU-Front-Hub-Saver-Rings-/180933315000?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a207749b8

Thanks mate. I've seen those and thought I might get some. I just thought it was interesting the amount of flex these hubs can take without breaking.

[04OFF]

I saw Hekarewe had some of those on the weekend, they looked good, only concern is i think id rather still have the hub as a weak link, not pass more strain to the CV ?


BTW, Love your Sig Frenzy

[Silver]

thanks Fren2y.

So the concern is that the fw-hub and the wheel hub are moving independantly of each other across that join. And this could cause a crack because the bolts end up on an angle? Or? Note, I'm not saying they don't crack - just trying to understand.

Clean up the threads on the bolts and torque them to spec with a torque wrench, and see what that does?

the front hubs on Silver, a GQ, came with the kind of thing for sale on e-bay, but in two halves. I assumed it was there for show, or perhaps to prevent the steel bolt heads biting into the alloy fw-hub. the bolts are also a lot shorter as the fw-hub is designed differently, with only a short distance between that join and the face the bolt heads do up on.