(Same for picture-orientation via Photobucket, another joke.)
The (probably original ? but maybe replated ?) water shields on my 3.8 RHS hub had suffered some workshop mis-hap in the past and didn't look that nice, so I ordered a pair from the Usual Suspect.
Seen here still blackened from 26 years of brake and road dust.
They're over £18 a pair, plus VAT ; now, having worked in low-volume OEM vehicle context, and seen what parts cost to get made, I would reckon that there is a multiple of 5 lurking in the mark-up on these bits - which I applaud, wholeheartedly, and am happy to cough up for.
If they fitted.
The supplied parts are powder-coated blackened, with a couple of chips and the beginnings of rust, which I was disappointed by - but maybe they're black originally ? To all intents and purposes, zinc or bichromate flashing of these would not change the manufacturing cost .............. and you can't see them. The inner cup had shards of razor-sharp parting-off swarf hanging off one edge, and had to be fettled, but ........... we're used to buying junk aren't we ?
This inner cup that goes on the axle root is probably always a bitch to fit - I didn't have quite the right piece of tube to put the effort right at the root of the inner sleeve, and making a tool (a big tool, on the lathe) just for this seemed an overkill, so the traces on the inner face - left by an alloy drift - aren't the best examples of my workshop practice, but this didn't change any critical dimensions beyond 5 or 10 thou, since I measured it and the part is still round to within 0.1mm.
The outer cup that goes around the bearing itself was a tad slack - so fitting it was easier, albeit plus bearing-fit Loctite to add a bit more grip.
So far so good, the fitting tolerances were about what I expected.
But once assembled, with the hub/disc and bearings in place, something felt odd ............... and when I removed the hub I found the two new parts had wedged together, and the outer cup was now stuck inside the inner cup on the axle.
Quick check with the vernier-caliper, and this is why :
So instead of there being about a 1.5mm radial clearance between the water-flinger on the hub and the cup on the axle, they've got the tolerances so screwed up that the parts actually BIND.
Fortunately, the Draper bearing/seal driver discs could have been made to seat the water-flinger in the 3-jaw, using one as a mandrel and the other as a pressure plate with the live-centre, enabling 3mm to be taken off the diameter.
But WHY is any of this necessary ?! Are we all expected to have our own machine-shop before we can work on these cars ?
I'll go and get my coat now.
