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Bearing Spacer - Alfa 105
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Reduce Pad knock-Off and improve brake pedal feel, bearing life and cornering stability by reducing the flexing of your 105 front stub axle with our wheel bearing spacer. CNC Machined from 4130 Chrome Moly Steel, supplied with a set of shims to aid adjustment
INFO
A very common complaint when racing or rallying 105's is excessive pad knock off giving a long initial first brake pedal apply, not ideal. Whilst this was more of an annoyance on the circuit it was rallying where it became a critical issue for us. With less time to prepare for braking and the undulating rough road that exasabated the issue, something had to be done.
From what we had read and heard the problem was coming from the rear of the car, and this made sense. First off it was the original rear brake calipers, apparently these have a poor seal design causing excessive piston retraction. To fix this the rear calipers went in the bin and were replaced with some shiny new wilwood 4pot ali calipers. they looked cool but didn't fix the problem. Next off we looked at the feeble 105 single row wheel bearings, Haha this must be the issue!, but after throwing a double row bearing at it, still not much better. Clearly we were correct that the issue was coming from the rear so not satisfied with the double row bearing we installed an additional set of needle roller bearings part way down the axle (not an insignificant modification), and it was fixed! Only kidding whilst it did wonders for high speed stability and bearing life, the familiar and annoying long brake pedal was still there.
Finally we got a chance to drive the car in a very open area allowing us to put it through a set of high dynamic manoeuvres and then roll to a stop without using the brakes. After Jacking the car up and removing the wheels we inspected the pad knock off. What do you know, after all the work on the rear axle there was almost no measurable knock off of the brake pads, the fronts, well that was a different story
So it appeared to be an issue with rigidity from the front spindle, come on Alfa didn't you design enough safety factor in to deal with 16" wheels and modern semi slick tyres! apparently not.
So to improve this situation a hub spacer was created, this spacer fills then void between the two inner races of the front wheel bearings to creates a compression column. this has multiple benefits it effectively creates much stiffer stubb axle and also allows much more accurate setting of the bearing running clearance, more importantly a massive reduction in brake knock off!
With the prototypes proving themselves over many Tarmac rallies we've CNC machined sets of these spacers out of 4130 Chrome-Moly , and to accommodate small variances in stubaxle dimensions and bearing thicknesses supply a set of shims to allow the running clearance to be set correctly.
From what we had read and heard the problem was coming from the rear of the car, and this made sense. First off it was the original rear brake calipers, apparently these have a poor seal design causing excessive piston retraction. To fix this the rear calipers went in the bin and were replaced with some shiny new wilwood 4pot ali calipers. they looked cool but didn't fix the problem. Next off we looked at the feeble 105 single row wheel bearings, Haha this must be the issue!, but after throwing a double row bearing at it, still not much better. Clearly we were correct that the issue was coming from the rear so not satisfied with the double row bearing we installed an additional set of needle roller bearings part way down the axle (not an insignificant modification), and it was fixed! Only kidding whilst it did wonders for high speed stability and bearing life, the familiar and annoying long brake pedal was still there.
Finally we got a chance to drive the car in a very open area allowing us to put it through a set of high dynamic manoeuvres and then roll to a stop without using the brakes. After Jacking the car up and removing the wheels we inspected the pad knock off. What do you know, after all the work on the rear axle there was almost no measurable knock off of the brake pads, the fronts, well that was a different story
So it appeared to be an issue with rigidity from the front spindle, come on Alfa didn't you design enough safety factor in to deal with 16" wheels and modern semi slick tyres! apparently not.
So to improve this situation a hub spacer was created, this spacer fills then void between the two inner races of the front wheel bearings to creates a compression column. this has multiple benefits it effectively creates much stiffer stubb axle and also allows much more accurate setting of the bearing running clearance, more importantly a massive reduction in brake knock off!
With the prototypes proving themselves over many Tarmac rallies we've CNC machined sets of these spacers out of 4130 Chrome-Moly , and to accommodate small variances in stubaxle dimensions and bearing thicknesses supply a set of shims to allow the running clearance to be set correctly.
Instructions
The spacers can be installed without the need to remove the hub from the stub axle, but it's recommended to install new wheelbearings if there condition is unknown.
1. Remove bearing cover, split pin, undo stub axle nut (remember left hand thread on left hand side of the car), keyed washer and small outer bearing
2. Slide bearing spacer over spindle followed by 1 of the .2mm shims.
3. Install bearing and keyed washer
4. Start tightening the spindle nut, as the slack is taken up start spinning the hub to ensure hub does not lock up on the spindle, if excessive force is required to turn the hub another shim is required. if the nut has been done up completely but there is still non axle free play in the hub/disk assembly, reduce the shim thicknesses
5. Once the correct shim size has been determined tighten the hub night to around %%%% and although not critical if the split pin can be installed (may require slightly more or less torque) then do so. we've not used locktight on this component as it is a relatively fine thread and excessive locktight can cause issues with gauling up and destroying fine threads.
6.If installed new bearings it is advisable to re-check clearance after some bedding in of the bearing, although with good quality bearings we have not found any adjustment require
7.Enjoy a firm brake pedal!
1. Remove bearing cover, split pin, undo stub axle nut (remember left hand thread on left hand side of the car), keyed washer and small outer bearing
2. Slide bearing spacer over spindle followed by 1 of the .2mm shims.
3. Install bearing and keyed washer
4. Start tightening the spindle nut, as the slack is taken up start spinning the hub to ensure hub does not lock up on the spindle, if excessive force is required to turn the hub another shim is required. if the nut has been done up completely but there is still non axle free play in the hub/disk assembly, reduce the shim thicknesses
5. Once the correct shim size has been determined tighten the hub night to around %%%% and although not critical if the split pin can be installed (may require slightly more or less torque) then do so. we've not used locktight on this component as it is a relatively fine thread and excessive locktight can cause issues with gauling up and destroying fine threads.
6.If installed new bearings it is advisable to re-check clearance after some bedding in of the bearing, although with good quality bearings we have not found any adjustment require
7.Enjoy a firm brake pedal!