Front hub rebuild pictures.......
Please dont post on here until ive managed to upload everything..........
il put on at the bottom complete.....
cheers simon
then remove the two brake line securing clips with a screwdriver or something to prise them off, also remove the bolts that secure the brake hose bracket so when the caliper is loose you can swing it all out of the way
remove the 2no. 19mm caliper fixing bolts you can start with a socket but you have to do the final few turns with a spanner as theres no room for the socket
next carefully swing the caliper out of the way with the attached pipework, cable tie it to something suitable i used the steering arm! now you can remove the disc and hub assembly by removing the single pozi screw. i had to use my impact screwdriver to do this. you can also remove the centre cap by prising it off with a screwdriver
now remove the disc assembly you can now see clearly the hub nuts in the centre
here is my self made mercedes hub nut tool, started life as a 30mm socket, 10 mins and a single grinder cutting disc and voila a 5 quid wheel removal tool beats 40 quid from merc!
firstly knock back the lock washer tabs or you will be there all day! undo and remove the first nut, then use a couple of small screwdrivers to fish out the tab washer. then undo and remove the second preload nut. gently pull/knock off the drive flange/hub assembly
next undo the remaining swivel bolts top and bottom, gently tap the bottom steering arm down and out and swing to one side. i found twisting and prising the top one soom freed it. remove all the swivel hub seal bolts so its free and gently pull forward to remove. you can then pull out the drive shaft as shown
now get a punch and knock out the botton cap and outer swivel race, after using a punch i found a socket the right size and used that to drift out the outer race and base cap of the swivel
first class simon
here is a pic of parts needed cost about 44 quid from merc, i used timkin taper bearings which cost approx 55 aswell
now remove all the old seals and bearing they should all come out quite easily, i used white spirits again to clean everything up
now install all the new bearings and seals and coat liberally in grease i used saphire 1 from rocol
when i checked the drive shaft i found the cv boot was split so as with the other side i removed it (im sorry all you purists but merc want nearly 50 quid for a boot kit, shes 25 years old il just replace the cv's when they go!) i washed the whole shaft in solvent again to remove all the old grease and then relubed it
now back to the g with your lovely new bits installed,first put the new hub seal ring on. then slide the shaft back in, offer up the hub assembly and locate the top and bottom swivel pins ensuring all your shims go back where they came from i cleaned them first and put a thin layer of grease between. then you can slide on the outer drive hub
time now to install the new swivel seal, i used a smear of grease to locate and hold the paper gasketthen just worked my way round working the pu seal into place while tightening the bolts securely (i replaced the 8mm bolts with some stainless 8mm dome heads because i had some spare)
Good Stuff mate ,
as Ian said this this should be in a technical section or sticky !
could you post the part numbers and an idea of cost .
Cheers
Cliff
all thats left to do now is tighten up the hub nut, i did this by tightening as tight as i could using my ratchet then backing it right off and retightening finger tight with the socket, then installl tab washer and second nut (dont forget to bend the tabs over!) stick the disc assembly back on and the wheel (oops dont forget the centre cap, i filled mine with grease. then drive away happily in your g!
If anybody reads this all the way through i hope someone finds it usefull, i know im probably teaching alot of you to suck eggs to those im sorry, and if ive done something wrong well hey ho the other side has done 10K since i did it and shes still sweet.
thanks for bearing with me through my ramblings above, its a rough guide not the gospel!
cheers simon
parts from merc per side are:
0079970447 seal ring 1no.
0079970347 seal ring 1no.
4609970040 seal ring 2no.
4603320033 expansion 2no.
4603310080 gasket 1no.
4603310180 gasket 1no.
4603340259 seal ring 1no.
total inc vat £44.04
Excellent article - thanks for taking the time to share.
Andy
Many thanks for sharing!
Tip #1.
Dont rebuild your G hubs so close to a drain or make sure you have a magnet and string handy!
Apart from that your getting there young Jedi.
Just a comment/upgrade on what is otherwise a wonderful contribution to this forum.
Mercedes fill the gaiter of the CV joint with black lithium grease, while the rest of the contents of the hub are filled with white lithium grease. This is so that if the CV gaiter breaks the back grease will contaminate the white one and this could be detected from the outside, prompting the owner to service the hub.
Keep them coming!
i guessed as much, but looking at how knackered the boots where im guessing they have been running in normal grease for years so il just change cv's when they are needed!
G axles are the only ones i've ever know of with CV boots within the swivel housing.... typical merc over engineering
simon, seeing as you have gone to all this effort and seeing as your going to attempt G wizz maybe you should make this an article for your first copy.
something you know on that front peter, as ive heard nothing?!
:?
cheers simon
??, has tim not contacted you ?
not heard a dicky bird! even been teaching myself some adobe publishing thing (with help from my Graphics design team at work!)
cheers simon
SIMON, SIMON,
Am I seeing correctly? No CV Boots! Why, you could have chossen to fit universal boots on the CV joint, there are relatively cheap enough from any Motor Factor to the Trade, I should think, the like of Halfords would also supply the same.
You do need the boot to retain the grease in the joint other wise it would simply work its self out. With the boot in place the turning action of the Wheel squeezes grease back into the joint maintaning its service life. Bootless, means a sevre reduction in service life.
I suppose one can argue, that the grease in the swivel housing will maintain sufficient lubrication to the joint. Grease, when it warms up during driving melts down, as the grease cools, it sets back to a gel which does not work its way back into the CV, at least with the boot all that grease is contained and the boot it self sqeezes the grease back into the CV. See, what I mean??
if you look back the reason no cv boots were put on is because the old ones were knackered and they had been running in normal grease for a long time! the grease in there will not melt as its high temp stuff we use at work approx 250c they joints are already worn so i just put them back in till i sourced new which i have done!
simon
ahhh.....
But you did not set up the top/bottom king pin bearings?
There is an MB jig that replaces the driveshaft seal and then you fit the top/bottom bearing caps without shims but with spacers, use feeler gauges to measure gap and re-add shims to gain a 0.15mm preload for each bearing. Around page 20 in the colour breakdown link below. The MB jig would be easy enough with a lathe to knock up.. make very tight fitting sleeve between driveshaft and axle housing.
Ideally this is done with new bearings as the taper position within the bearings shells is not a constant. Probably get away without doing this but… this is the factory way… and you may have to do this if you get oil seal failures or too much play still. Doing this may even give you another bit of life in the original bearings but then traditionally you would look for less preload on used taper bearings.
Info came from Merc training for 463 axles PDF on net where there is a very nice colour layout similar to Simon’s effort with all problems and sections to look at .. sure this is public domain stuff.
463 = 217 code
http://www.mercedestechstore.com/pdfs/index.htm
Tips/questionnaire for training =
http://www.mercedestechstore.com/pdfs/G%20files/217%20Mod%2006-1%20Front%20axle%20disassembly%20(IC%20TF%20OP)%201-27-03.pdf
Colour section of how to do everything on the axles/props =
http://www.mercedestechstore.com/pdfs/G%20files/217%20HO%2006%20Axles%20(IC%20GC%20OP%20TF)%202-17-03.pdf
… PS why not fit some generic dust boots.. must get something basic for £5-7… heck you could get one of these superglue zipped up ones for £12 or so last time I had a Citroen that ate these all the time.. the tip then was to buy factory ones in decent rubber.. cost you £30 but lasted 7-8 years instead of 24 months. It was the UV light that killed the cheap thin after market ones and you have no problem here with light I hope!
Now the more I look at how they tell you to do this .. and the tolerance stackup .. (CV is not very stiff vertically, driveshaft will have slack in splines) ..the more I think it is not very clever .. and while it will get you in the right ball park ultimately the shim thickness to nearest 0.1mm is not so much an issue.. driveshaft/seal/CV will work around a small offset .. and to do it correctly you should hang the axle along it axis (ie vertically) to take out gravitational droop. :shock: Hence why no one worries too much .. but this is the ultimate way to do this job. :wink:
Love the wood working G clamp in the colour section :lol: with MB part number!
..and picking that colour document apart .. it has 460 axle cross sections (non ventilated front discs and drum rear) but all the photos are 463 .. no doubt brand new parts being pulled apart in 2003 in USA.. those boys do like to do it their way :wink: Ah .. found it .. MBUSA Educational Centre, West Rancho, California (under battery tester) .. never let me have to service a 20 year old 2003 463; the electronics would do most battleships proud :shock:
Very interesting info there. Thanks.
NB. section on prop shaft alignment
done approx 10k miles since renewing the assembly, I do approx 450 a week on motorway and it gets treated to a lot of offroad at weekends nothing has gone pop yet, I do have the merc manual but I reckon the shims installed in the factory would have been fitted at new, so just renewing the bearings would in theory put all tolerance back to factory set so shims would be correct and can you really see you're merc dealer doing all that when they would just change bearings anyway. this is my opinion right or wrong!
cheers simon
Please excuse the lateness of the praise but some of us don't get to see these posts until we are knee deep in trouble and searching fast for help.
This posting is worth this years membership to me personally. Simon thanks for your patience and perseverence with the photography and descriptions.
One question are both 463 and 460 axles the same in build sequence not forgetting they can be different widths?
I presume the parts list applies to the 460 model?
Regards,
Mike
hi mike, these are the parts for a 460. I bought original seals etc from merc as I knew they were right ie mercs seals are 4 lip as appose to generic 2 lip seals and for the cost its not worth messing about the bearings I used one set timkin and one set fag neither have given any probs yet! cheers for the nice comments I did this post to help all who are intrested
cheers simon
Please excuse the lateness of the praise but some of us don't get to see these posts until we are knee deep in trouble and searching fast for help.
This posting is worth this years membership to me personally. Simon thanks for your patience and perseverence with the photography and descriptions.
One question are both 463 and 460 axles the same in build sequence not forgetting they can be different widths?
I presume the parts list applies to the 460 model?
Regards,
Mike
here here, well done for all the informative posts, very useful indeed. :idea:
460 and 463 axles ends are basically the same .. only front diff is not.
This is going by photos (one set is 460, online is 463).
Shim set up is as Simon said can mostly ignored unless you change any other parts .. total thickness tolarance of tapered bearings is 0-0.125mm I think and hence more than likely will be half this = 0.075mm so the 0.150mm preload they are shooting for is a guess and anyway.. gravity will have far more effects on this than not.. in fact next tip for super accurate from removing axle and doing it vertically .. is then to add a torque to the CV/Driveshaft to centralise the splines .. then you could get it even more perfect :lol:
.. so do as Simon says.
OK .. so the front axles where crusty (2mm mill scale :shock: ) without any front end while the paint cures ... so I decided to rip in. Rebuilt front calipers so they are nice with Lockheed brake fluid friend grease. Killed front discs as millscale rust was so bad you could not get it past the hubs... tip would be to tap on top hat of disc to remove rust but note these are only 2-3mm thick castings.. I cracked entire disk off mouting flange by getting too energetic with hammer on disc surface (well discs really needed a serious skim so no great loss). Brakes international do fitting kits and wiring kits 8)
Anyway... has anyone looked at the bush that the CV end of the driveshaft runs on inside the oil?
Both mine are completely wrecked :cry: .. driver's side (RHD) has wear through to brass foundation at rear, passenger side seem worn through white metal in all 4 points of compass but only in bands. I am going to try and replace in situ.. but why are they so bad? My only guess is that someone ran the diff low on oil .. only other alternative is that there is a misalignment issue; or maybe vibration due to front prop being worn and replaced? Car shows a genuine looking 110k miles with dealer stamps and plausible gap that you could not do 100k extra in, and little extra work as if it has been butchered/clocked. Original front hub grease, driver side had been messed with; no locking tab and new kingpin grease.
Hi all,
Its my first post here and i would like to ask you 2 questions about the frond/rear axle shafts of a 460 axle/military.
First i would like to know how many splines the frond and rear axle shaft has, and second, the diameter of the frond and rear axle shaft too.
If there are any differences between a civilian and a military model refering to what i,m askining above, please let me know.
Thanks in advance, Vasilis.
P.S.: That site/forum looks really cool...... keep posting good stuff 8)
Hi Simon,
Thanks again for the inspiration :D . Mines a 463 and uses slightly different part numbers which I now have hold of. I'm in the process of re assembling hubs at present.
When finished will post photos of differences and part numbers needed for the 463 so others may consider doing this job at home also.
Thanks again . There was no way I would have chanced it without your posts and pics.
Regards,
Mike
Anybody who maybe has a spare/broken axle shaft ready to measure?
Any axle differences from the civilian to military G?
Not great on the pictures front yet but I will learn how to post small ones I promise.
Some info for those of us with the 463 model around '91 vintage with 730.305 front axle.
Seals required to do same job as Simon:
List is from the diff out towards the hub/wheel.
A009 997 28 47 = metal seal ring between CV housing and axle casing.
A460 331 00 80 = Paper seal between chrome swivel and bolt on outer cover.
A460 331 03 80 = Open ended Plastic scraper seal onto chrome swivel.
(A460 331 01 80) = Same as above item but seal is closed ended and cheaper.
A015 997 0147 = Metal seal ring protecting inner wheel bearing.
A015 997 7947 = Metal seal ring protecting outer wheel bearing.
A463 334 0159 = P.U. foam seal between wheel hub and CV carrier hub.
A463 334 0019 = Goes with above item, its the PU seals metal holder and if yours is bent/damaged replace it with this part number.
A460 997 0040 = Metal ring cover that goes on top of the Kingpin bearing. Replacement only if yours were damaged.
To the old hands that have all this done before tea, sorry. To all others that may contemplate changing your own some day (like me)
these parts should make your dealers job a bit easier when ordering.
These are all mercedes part numbers and are cheap overall.
I took on this job with the most primitive of tools and little experience or facilities and survived at home. Finally, a special thanks to the instigator of all this Simon. Without your initial posts and pics I would still be wondering where do I go next. "Go raibh maith agat".
For me this is what the forum is all about.
Regards,
Mike
PS Bought the drive shaft/cv boots on ebay for peanuts and replaced my shreaded ones. Well worth doing and fairly easy too.
Kudos to you Tyreman for attempting the job without previous experience.
If you have tackled this, you can tackle just about anything in your G.
Cheers for your comment, Mortison but in fairness all praise has to go to Simon 'cause without his efforts I would not even have attempted it.
I'm not a member of the mutual admiration society,but genuinely posts like Simon's should be the core of the forum.
One can buy all the workshop manuals and sometimes they are too technical and based on people who do this for a living not ordinary joe's like me. Comments like Simon made in his posts carried far more weight as I felt it was from the "and don't forget this like I nearly did" stable as opposed to the engineering faculty.
I know many of you out there reading this have done this job before and for the offroad fraternity maybe many times before. I have written this for the others that they too may contemplate such a job in the future.
Regards,
Mike
PS If Simon turns out to be a mechanic or mechanical engineer or something close in his day job then I will feel justifiably proud of my efforts.
Sorry guys, but I completely forgot about Simon's excellent article.
Being reminded about it by Roly in the US forum, I have edited it and converted it into pdf so that it can be printed easily.
Many thanks again, Simon
Really great process description Simon, thanks!
perhaps silly to ask, but could you share the parts list needed for this please?
Cheers,
Jeff
Hi
I'm psyching myself up to tackle one of the hubs and this is a great thread hwoever I can't see the pictures.
Am I being stupid with my favourite web browser or have the pictures disapeared?
Best regards
Jim
Jim did you get this sorted, I'm looking to do the same job and the pics would help?
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first remove the jack up the g and remove the front wheel