GQ Swivel hubs gets very hot

[94patrol]

hello all,

I have a 94 Patrol, TD42, running on 285/75r16 tyres. Noticed when I was trying disengage my hubs after a tackling a track, it was almost impossible to try to hold and turn to disengage the hubs.

To try to resolve the problem I recently had my front hubs and bearings completely serviced. In addition new front rotors and all four corners have been serviced at the same time. It didn't help.

If I was to go for a drive out to the sticks, straight road, no traffic etc the hubs get warm which I believe is within normal operating temperatures. However, if I were using my breaks eg. general start/stop, up and down tracks or even hilly windy roads the hubs get too hot to touch. Today I took the Patrol for a short drive to a local hilly area and then went to a mates' shop to have the temperature read. It was 79.9 degrees Celsius on both front hubs.

Does anyone have any idea what would cause this and how to resolve this? I also read somewhere running bigger tyres may be a possible cause. is this normal for a GQ? What should the standard operating temperature be?

[MudRunnerTD]

Have you stripped and serviced the actual Hubs. are they Auto hubs of manual hubs? Sounds like manual hubs. they can be stripped and re packed. what grease is in them will make a bit of a difference too.

Check your wheel bearing tension too.

[GQtdauto]

Mine get warm to hot but not that hot you can't touch them .

[the evil twin]

I think you mean Free Wheeling Hubs not Swivel Hubs.
The heat can only come from the wheel bearings or the disc rotors and if it was too much preload on the wheel bearings it should be worse on the highway

Because it is when you are offroad and the brakes are working hard I would suspect it may be a proportioning issue and too much braking effort is going to the front rotors.
I have seen mine up over 60 (on a laser temp gun) once but nowhere near 80.

Even tho the issue was there before and after your Bearing rebuild I would double check the wheel bearing preload and then I would be looking at bleeding the brakes and ensuring the proportioning valve is OK. The valve is quite often a source of issues esp if it hasn't been reset correctly for lifts etc

[94patrol]

yeah they are free wheeling hubs...doh! sorry about that. yes, I have taken it to Patrolapart to get it completely stripped down repacked with new seals and bearings. As for tensioning the bearings I haven't checked...figuring Patrolapart would have got all the settings correctly.

[94patrol]

I have also bled the brakes (twice) post the new rotors and brake piston reconditioning. I will have to find out how to check the proportioning valve on the brakes.......dunno how to do that. The temperature was read using one of those laser thingys with the red dot....point and shoot for the reading.

[the evil twin]

snip... The temperature was read using one of those laser thingys with the red dot....point and shoot for the reading.

Yeah thats what I use... when towing I check my hub temps on the Patrol and my Van every major stop (smoko, lunch, fuel) when I do my walk around.
It immediately alerts me if one of the Van eleccy brakes is having issues (too cold) or I have a wheel bearing problem (too hot).

Brake proportioning valve - if you have a lift and it hasn't been adjusted then it thinks there is less weight in the rear and 'sends' more effort to the front.
They also get grunged up, corroded etc as the vehicle gets on a bit in years

[94patrol]

yeah got a 2 inch lift in it. I gotta find out where the brake proportioning valve is....do you know where it is on a gq? I have jacked up the wheels a checked if the brakes were binding...nope. so, am stumped....

[the evil twin]

snip....do you know where it is on a gq?

Attached to the rear of the rear diff housing... has the rear brake lines going to it with a spring attached to the vehicle body.

Not saying it is 100% the issue but if you have a lift you can get/make an extension for the spring attachment to restore the correct brake bias

[94patrol]

ok ta, I will have a look....is there anything in particular I should keep an eye out for?