Milling front hubs

[Christ]

Anyone think it would be ok to take 3mm out of the Aspire knuckle's bearing seat?

The bearing I need to fit is 66mm OD, stock are 63mm OD. Need to remove 3mm (0.118") to fit it.

[drddan]

I think it would be ok. 3 mm = 1.5 mm per wall. That is .059 inch per wall. A few thousands less than 1/16 inch.

[Kraig]

Why?

[sketchman]

^Bolt pattern swap, captive rotor elimination, bigger stronger bearing?

I know in my area, an Aspire swap is a once in a blue moon chance kind of thing.

[bhazard]

If hes milling an ASPIRE hub, its not to get rid of a captive rotor...

[sketchman]

^Wow. How'd I miss that? Time for more coffee I think.

[blkfordsedan]

Is this a tapered roller bearing or an angular contact ball bearing? I would get the recommended housing tolerance dimension from the bearing manufacturer, just to make sure you machine for the proper interference fit (or slip fit, whichever it is).

[Safety Guy]

Christ, you might want to check the Kia Rio hubknuckle to see if that would provide more "meat metal" to do what you want here.

I'm ASSuming you want a larger front bearing for longer life or heavier loads, etc.

The Rio knuckle might be better for this.

Also check out the pictures of the Festiva knuckle when it breaks under hard off road use. If it is around the bearing race area, reconsider the metal thickness you are working with on either an Aspire or Rio knuckle.

Just some thoughts. I might be ignorant of what you are wanting to do though.

Karl

[Movin]

Christ, you might want to check the Kia Rio hubknuckle to see if that would provide more "meat metal" to do what you want here.

I'm ASSuming you want a larger front bearing for longer life or heavier loads, etc.

The Rio knuckle might be better for this.

Also check out the pictures of the Festiva knuckle when it breaks under hard off road use. If it is around the bearing race area, reconsider the metal thickness you are working with on either an Aspire or Rio knuckle.

Just some thoughts. I might be ignorant of what you are wanting to do though.

Karl

I have not seen any other festiva out on the OHV trails!
These failures I seen pics of looked like it was the result
of high rpm's, a good clutch and really sticky tires...
If the knuckle is weak in other situations we should
document this.

Next we will see VW diesel knuckle conversions..

[Christ]

Next we will see VW diesel knuckle conversions..

Golf bearing is 66 OD... Same ID as festiva, and it's a sealed, dbl roller bearing, same as festiva, aspire.

[Christ]

...thinking ahead in case the whole knuckle doesn't work out.

[FB71]

so you're not looking to mill the hubs then. You wanting to bore the knuckle...

[Advancedynamix]

If the stock wheel bearings are of a high quality and have the correct preload and quality grease they hold up to severe abuse. I think weakening the casting for a stronger bearing would be a poor decision. I hit some pretty gnarly track curbing (gnarly enough to jump the car) at speeds close to 100mph with my aspire swap regularly (ford fester can vouch for me here) without any bearing problems. My current setup has over a thousand laps plus the rigors of daily driving, and I do not baby this car in any way. Nothing wrong with the stock aspire setup. Cheers to Mazda on a great job!

[Advancedynamix]

Golf bearing is 66 OD... Same ID as festiva, and it's a sealed, dbl roller bearing, same as festiva, aspire.

Didn't read this. Duh! Lol, definitely check the already mentioned Rio parts or Capri knuckles. Getting the VW parts to work would be ideal though, then you have more shock options too.

Or, what about turning the VW hubs to fit the aspire bearings I.d.? Might be easier. I've cut VW hubs for 5 lug mk1 swaps before, shouldn't be much different.

[Christ]

Didn't read this. Duh! Lol, definitely check the already mentioned Rio parts or Capri knuckles. Getting the VW parts to work would be ideal though, then you have more shock options too.

Or, what about turning the VW hubs to fit the aspire bearings I.d.? Might be easier. I've cut VW hubs for 5 lug mk1 swaps before, shouldn't be much different.

You still didn't read it. They're the same ID, the difference is the OD on both bearings.

If I wanted to press the VW hub into the Aspire knuckle, I'd need to remove 3mm and just fit everything together. Interestingly, the VW bearing's OD isn't press fit into the hub.

This is more of a contingency plan, really, in case the first plan (swapping the whole knuckle and hub from the VW) doesn't work out.

The Escort (US) knuckle is 70x40x40, so it wouldn't work at all.