Cool Hub & Spindle Change Question

[Kenny C]

I bought new hub and spindle assemblies for my 2007 Ranger Trailer (cool hub assemblies pre filled and ready to install). My question is do I need some kind of puller to get the old spindle out? I removed the cotter pin and nut from the back of the spindle however I cannot move it, I even tried to take a piece of wood and a hammer to try to hit it out with no movement. Oh and does the new one need to be pressed in or just tightened in by the nut?
Thanks for any help!
Kenny

[Zpilot]

Here is a post by member MET from last month on how to do this, thanks MET.

All,
Rather than continuing a thread that was started long ago, thought I would document the trials and tribulation associated with the hubs on my 2006 Z21 trailer. Many have IM'd me asking about a status, and today the story reached a happy end...I hope.

My 2006 trailer had all Tie Down Engineering components. Everything I describe here only applies to my trailer. I can only assume those with TDE components can do the same.

1) inner seal was leaking, and contacted Ranger about swapping to a sealed hub which is on the new trailers- told not compatible.

2) contacted TDE and got technical support, they were very helpful, but told me if I went to the sealed Vortex hub, I would have issues with brakes as the new hubs were different than my caliper brackets, and would need to swap brakes as well.

3) spoke to an expert at Ranger (name withheld intentionally), and was told to contact Waymires and order part #46210TVXA Waymires # 800-434-4824. Was told all components would line up perfectly and all I would need to do is take caliper off, hub removed, bolt on new hub and reverse caliper procedure and I would be good to go. Sounds simple right?

4) ordered 4 Vortex hubs from Waymires and TDE drop shipped to my house in a few days. This was at least a month ago.

5) today I installed the new hubs and all seems right with the world, but this was no easy task. I only hope I never have to deal with hubs EVER again.

So.......let me give you some advice:

The hubs will come without castle nuts/washer or cotter pins. I reused mine.

When you get the wheel and caliper off, remove your rotor. LEAVE the hub attached (more to follow on that), pull cotter pin and loosen castle nut all the way until only a few threads are holding it on (reason to follow).

Now the fun begins. I started with a short hand held sledge hammer, don't know how heavy, but after beating the snot out of the threaded end of the spindle trying to knock that %)*&%&^ hub loose, I destroyed the threads on the back of the spindle. I called Ranger and luckily reached a gentleman who was MOST helpful. He said in all of the years of doing this, and training dealers, he has never seen one bust loose by hitting the back of the spindle (good info to know in advance).

He then goes on to explain, that the little pea shooter of a sledge hammer will probably not work. Get a full grown sledge hammer, choke it down (not much room under the fender) and beat on the back of the hub until the hub pops loose. He said leave the castle nut threaded on the last couple of threads........keeps the hub from becoming a projectile when it finally lets go!!! NOW, take that monster of a sledge hammer, choke it down, and start hammering on the back of the hub (this is why you leave the hubs attached). When you think you are going to rattle the fenders and your fillings loose, keep hammering away and turning the hub and hammer some more.....then hammer some more. There will be no warning at all, when it turns loose, it turns loose!!!!! Trust me, you can't hit that (&*))&^ thing too hard. It will finally surrender and release the death grip.

Put new hub in, washer, castle nut, cotter pin, and caliper, then wheel. Do it 3 more times and you are good to go.

As I said earlier, I hope I NEVER have to touch those things EVER again.

All this and it only took me about 4 hours and every ounce of sledge hammer energy I own. If these things fail or leak (5 year warranty) I will blow it up before I do this again.

ALSO, for those of you that carry a spare hub (me included), and think that on the side of the road, in the dark and rain, you will easily replace a failed hub, think again, unless you can see at night and carry the mother of all sledge hammers in your truck. I felt good knowing that spare hub was in the truck, but now that I have done it, I will only pray I never have to try and do it in an emergency situation.

Good luck to all!

MET

[INDOCK]

Use a small propane torch to heat up the area where the spindle seats, this will not hurt anything! The heat will help remove the tapered spindle. After you heat it up good use a large hammer and knock it out, bolt the new one in. This job is not as hard as the others have made it sound. I have changed hundreds since 2005.

[Kenny C]

Thank you both for the quick responses!

Just two further questions, is it possible to rebuild the old ones or is it not worth it?
I have put 5 seasons on these bearings and have never gone this long without changing bearings I did not have any leaks but was uncomfortable waiting for something to happen before changing the hub set ups I think preventative maintenance is the best way to go, should I be keeping track of mileage?

Thanks for your input

Kenny

[GClark519]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by INDOCK &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Use a small propane torch to heat up the area where the spindle seats, this will not hurt anything! The heat will help remove the tapered spindle. After you heat it up good use a large hammer and knock it out, bolt the new one in. This job is not as hard as the others have made it sound. I have changed hundreds since 2005.</td></tr></table>

What he said. A little heat and that sucker will pop right out.

[gfd]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by INDOCK &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Use a small propane torch to heat up the area where the spindle seats, this will not hurt anything! The heat will help remove the tapered spindle. After you heat it up good use a large hammer and knock it out, bolt the new one in. This job is not as hard as the others have made it sound. I have changed hundreds since 2005.</td></tr></table>

What he said. A little heat and that sucker will pop right out.

Excellent. I'm doing the exact same thing for my 2007 Ranger Trail trailer. Replacing the oil bath hub with the new vortex one & it's tighter than a Nun's chastity belt & harder than Chinese math to get out. Can't wait for good weather to try a little propane BernzOMatic heat.

[gofishloop]

I also hammered a small pipe wrench from bottom up then used a jack to push up and twisted them out worked great. Just make sure you are aware of the potential of things to fly around and bounce off floor etc.

[howieranger]

I have changed several sets of hubs for friends and banging away on the spindle castle nut was not an option for my used up shoulders. You can remove the hub from the spindle and go to some place that sells plumbing supplies, Home Depot etc and by a length of pipe the will slide down over the spindle. Then find a large washer that fits over the spindle threads and tighten up the spindle nut until the spindle pops free. Its a good idea the leave the large castle nut on the back of the spindle by a few threads so the spindle does not fly across the garage. The inner castle nut is torqued to 100 ft. lbs. Be sure to clean the taper seat in the trailing arm before reassembling.

[gfd]

Based on that principle of the pipe & washer, could you also use a gear puller on the hub end of the spindle to do the same thing?

[howieranger]

There is no access to use a gear puller.

[gfd]

10-4

[cdc2010]

Use a small propane torch to heat up the area where the spindle seats, this will not hurt anything! The heat will help remove the tapered spindle. After you heat it up good use a large hammer and knock it out, bolt the new one in. This job is not as hard as the others have made it sound. I have changed hundreds since 2005.

I realize I'm resurrecting an old thread, but I am in the middle of swapping out my oil bath hubs with Vortex grease hubs right now. I've got a couple of questions.

First, I removed my old hub

IMG_7299.jpg

and and the spindle remains:

IMG_7302.jpg

Here is a view from the back side:

IMG_7303.jpg

Here is my replacement part:

IMG_7304.jpg

So now my questions:

Is this (below) a removable washer piece? I don't know if that should be coming off (whether I use the pipe method above or the heat and hammer method) or not. Looking at my new part it seems it should come up but I cant get ANY separation between that washer piece and the back plate that it is affixed to now.

IMG_7302_2.jpg

So if I use the pipe method and this piece IS removable, I need to make sure I use a piece of pipe larger than this washer. Otherwise, I can use something smaller.

Also, I have put some heat on the back side of the spindle where it seats into the frame of the trailer. Can't get it to move. I guess I will try putting the hub back on and banging on the hub to loosen the spindle.

I welcome any other ideas.

[cdc2010]

Well I got the spindle off. I'll document this in case it helps someone else down the line.

I went to home depot and got a 2" diameter by 3" long piece of (threaded pipe) and two pieces of 1 inch pipe. I wasn't sure if 5 inches would be too long so I got the pieces to make a 4" long and a 5" long piece as needed. (As it turned out, 5" was perfect so just get the 5" piece.)

I placed the pieces of pipe over the front side of the spindle and put the front castle nut and washer. I was afraid the washer would not be large enough to seat in the 2" pipe, but it was just enough!

I placed my 1 1/8" wrench on the castle nut:

IMG_7309.jpg

And in half a turn it was free!

IMG_7310.jpg

Also in case it helps someone: note that the washer looking piece I asked about being removable above is NOT removable, it is built into the trailer itself.

The new spindle goes right into the opening and it all goes back together pretty simply.

One final note: the Vortex hub instructions talk about there being a zerc fitting on the back side of the new hub, but there is NOT one on mine. To fill with grease, you remove the vortex cap on the front of the hub and there is a zerc fitting under there right by the front castle nut. This is consistent with the diagram in the Vortex hub installation instructions but not the instructions themselves (which talk about a zerc fitting on the back of the hub).

[blkfalc4]

It's not a washer, but part of the torsion drop arm.

[Javelin387]

Heat will be your friend

[cdc2010]

Update:

Well I got around to changing the other side of that same axle yesterday and wanted to provide some corrections/clarifications to what I said above.

Getting the spindle off was still difficult. I tried the pipe method right away and it wouldn't budge. So I put the old hub back on and beat on it a while and put heat on it (on the front side where the spindle meets the torsion arm as well as on the back side where the spindle sits in the torsion arm. Then I beat on both the back of the spindle as well as the attached old hub for about 20 mins. I had to put the pipe back on, tighten up the castle nut to provide tension, applied more heat and then hit the back of the spindle while it was under tension from the pipe method and it finally turned loose. So it seems there is no free lunch, it takes some work to get it loose. I thought about putting some anti-seize around the part of the spindle that seats in the torsion arm but didn't. I figured I never plan on having to change these again on this boat.

Also, I said a single piece of 2" diameter by 5" long pipe would work, but I need to correct that. I was using a 3" long piece followed by two, 1" long piece that were slight reducers. Turns out I needed that slight reduction in order for the washer to seat against the pipe. So keep that in mind.

I do think a 1.5" diameter pipe would work, but nothing smaller. So if I had to do it all over again, I'd get a single piece of 1.75" diameter (*maybe* 1.5"?) x 5" long pipe.

Other than that, everything was very straightforward. I hope these last a long time and I never have to mess with them again. My back two wheels (with brakes) are still oil bath hubs. When one of those goes, I'll play this game all over again and convert both of those to these vortex grease hubs. Hopefully doing so with the brakes isn't too much of a pain.

Hopefully documenting this will help someone else down the line.

[rivertrail]

Good information - I've been converting mine as well to Vortex. Someone mentioned it earlier and I was actually able to use a 2 arm gear puller and remove them on mine. The axle with brakes was no big deal either and went just fine using the assembly that Ranger sent. Certainly not something that could be done on the side of the road...

[cdc2010]

Good information - I've been converting mine as well to Vortex. Someone mentioned it earlier and I was actually able to use a 2 arm gear puller and remove them on mine. The axle with brakes was no big deal either and went just fine using the assembly that Ranger sent. Certainly not something that could be done on the side of the road...

What extra steps are involved in converting the ones with brakes? I've looked online but not been able to find any videos of how the procedure differs.

[rivertrail]

I ordered full hubs from Ranger. Two with brakes two without. The new one comes with a rotor on it. Bolts up exactly the same and fit with no issues. I saw comment above that said there were some extra steps but I didn’t need any.

[cdc2010]

I ordered full hubs from Ranger. Two with brakes two without. The new one comes with a rotor on it. Bolts up exactly the same and fit with no issues. I saw comment above that said there were some extra steps but I didn’t need any.

The brakes on the rotors have to connect to something that actuates them, right? I wasn't sure how that would go but maybe it is more clear once you have the wheel off and are looking at it.