Converted Ranger COOL Hub to Vortex Hub

[Tim619]

I've been running the COOL hubs on my RangerTrail on my 619 since I bought it new in '08. I haven't had a lot of trouble with the COOL hubs as long as I closely monitored them. If a leak of any kind developed, I replaced the seals immediately. No on the road disasters fortunately. But the seals were prone to leak.

BUT I still wasn't comfortable with oil hubs and the disaster that could occur with a sudden oil seal failure.

So today, I hammered out the rear axle spindles and replaced the entire hub/spindle with new Vortex hub/spindles I picked up from Ranger.

After reading how difficult it can be to remove the spindles, I am greatly relieved the job turned out to be relatively easy. No torches or heat needed. Just lots of PB penatrating oil and a BFH. The BFH is hard on the spindle end and the castle nut. They're soft and will deform in the hammering process. You have to be serious with the hammer to break the spindle loose. New mounting hardware is necessary IMHO.

Tomorrow I'll replace the hubs on the front axle with Vortex hubs, but will leave the original spindles in place. The Vortex hubs from Ranger have the zerk fitting located on the end of the spindle while the Vortex hubs I bought elsewhere have the zerk fitting located on the rear side of the hub. My thinking is the hubs w/o the disk brake rotor will be easier to grease with the zerk on the rear side than the disk brake version. So I saw no need for the more expensive Ranger version on the front axle.

Edited to add: I would recommend giving the new spindles a coat of a good anti-seize compound on the taper to aid in removal in the future should it be necessary.

[armond]

nice imfo. need to do the same