Greg Gauper
New member
The hub itself will fail, causing the wheel to part company with the rest of the car. This is similar to what the VW guys face. I've been lucky. In my older, Showroom Stock days, I didn't change my hubs for some 30 races because I didn't know I was supposed to. Then a fellow Honda racer suffered a hub failure and I figured I should replace mine. When the shop looked at the old hubs, there was a crack formed! The hub would have failed in the next session. Keep in mind that tires were not as sticky back then so the cornering loads were much lower, which is why they lasted so long. The second time was just a few years ago. I was heading into the very high speed turn 1 at Road America and as I braked, I felt something 'funny' in the brake pedal. It was the hub cracking, which I felt thru the brake pedal because it caused the rotor to shift, but the steering felt fine. Somehow I managed to get the car slowed enough to take a very conservative line thru the corner at speed with minimal cornering load, and I started looking for a place to pull off. I got the car slowed to about 30mph and turned the wheel to pull off at turn 3 and the hub broke the rest of the way and the wheel fell off, breaking the rotor in the process. If that had happened in the Kink, the car would have been a write-off. In this case, I had 15 races on the hubs, which was over my self-imposed IT limit. Fortunately I was going slow enough that I just slid in the grass on the outside of the corner, and had enough runoff that I didn't hit anything. The bad part was it happened right in front of the sound station, which just happened to be staffed by my mother....I like it better when she is in the pit lane and can't see what goes on out on the track
Now that the car runs in G-production, with the higher corner loads (from slicks), I change the hubs at the begining of the season, so they see about 6-10 races a year.
You can reuse the bearings, but since they are pretty cheap compared to the hubs, I usually just go ahead and put new ones in.
BTW - since you can't change the wheel studs without taking the hub apart, it's not a bad idea to put new OEM studs in at the same time that you rebuild the uprights. If you ever strip a stud at the track, your screwed unless you have a spare upright. It's cheap insurance.
[This message has been edited by Greg Gauper (edited December 09, 2004).]
Now that the car runs in G-production, with the higher corner loads (from slicks), I change the hubs at the begining of the season, so they see about 6-10 races a year.
You can reuse the bearings, but since they are pretty cheap compared to the hubs, I usually just go ahead and put new ones in.
BTW - since you can't change the wheel studs without taking the hub apart, it's not a bad idea to put new OEM studs in at the same time that you rebuild the uprights. If you ever strip a stud at the track, your screwed unless you have a spare upright. It's cheap insurance.
[This message has been edited by Greg Gauper (edited December 09, 2004).]
