Flavia wheel bearings

[Michael Findlay]

I recently bought a replacement pair of front wheel bearings for the Flavia 1800 Coupe. When fitted there was a lot of play at the wheel rim despite making sure everything was tightened to the correct torque settings. There is no adjustment for lateral clearance and I assume I will have to buy another set, Has anyone had this problem and is there a fix I have not thought of?

Michael Findlay

1963 Lancia Flavia 1800 PF Coupe
1971 Alfa Romeo GTV 1750

[Huib]

The bearings of the Flavia (and all other Lancia's I know) are double row angular contact ball bearings. These should not have any axial nor radial play. Heavy torquing should do the job. The spec says 30kgm for both the bearing retaining ring and the axle nut. I read that spec as the minimum torque. Make also sure that all surfaces are absolutely clean.

You need the special tools. No way to do it properly without those. I use an extra heavy 3/4" impact air tool with the air pressure set to a minimum of 10 bar (140psi). If you tighten the axle nut at the front, let someone else apply the brakes.

[racing]

Maybe an assembling mistake. Do you have Install the innerring between the bearing and the bearing adapter.
Difficult for me to explain but i hope you know what i mean. Have a look in the manual or in your garage.
Maybe you will find this ring as not used or unknown part.

regards Andreas

[Michael Findlay]

Thanks Huib and Andreas. I retightened the axle nut again yesterday but it made no difference to the play, I am not sure what part Andreas is describing. Is it a spacer that fits on the axle shaft behind the bearing? If so I do not have it.

[FL30]

Hello Michael,

I know this problem from my Flavia Convertibiles. It is the wheel hub causing the play. The "tube end" of it should sit tight in the wheel bearing (press fit). Then you will be able to fix the whole assembly of drive shaft---wheel bearing---hub by giving enough torque on the ring nut of the outer drive shaft joint (as Huib describes).

In my stock I used to have at least a dozen of worn hubs, one worse than the other. In my opinion Lancia executed the tight fit not tight enough (or the surface was so soft, or both) when they made the parts, so that with the years the hub starts rattling in the bearing fit spoiling its own surface.

Finally I had the work done in a specialised workshop. They reconditioned the hubs, meaning they increased the tube diameter by chroming or probably metal spraying and grinding to a correct pressure fit size afterwords.

Best regards

Hubert

[lucasgeheniau]

Hi,

Is it possible you forgot part 16 on the attached sheet? as Racing already mentioned. Sometimes , when dismantling one overlooks the part, then it drops on the floor and......

[Michael Findlay]

I stripped the Flavia front hubs down today and had a good look at the bearings. The bearings are a tight fit in the carrier and the hub a press fit into the bearing. All parts are present and correct according to the parts book. The axle was torqued correctly. I put the bearings in the vice and tightened the inner ring, then measured the lateral movement of the outer ring with a dial gauge which showed .1mm of movement. This appears to be what is causing the excessive play in the road wheel as this clearance is multiplied according to the diameter of the rim. Both bearings are identical in this respect. They were purchased new and have been run in the car for about 500 kms. There is no noticeable wear on either of them. Does anyone know what the axial runout tolerance should be for these bearings? There seems no alternative to machining .05mm off the inner face of each inner ring to achieve a good result.

[Huib]

How many balls inside? And what is the diameter of the balls?

The reason I am asking is that I have a feeling there are imitation bearings on the market with a higher number of balls. They must have smaller diameter. The original bearings have 26 balls of 1/4".

Is there a name of a manufacturer?
So far I have only seen RIV, SKF and FAG.
RIV was the original manufacturer. The company was bought by SKF many years ago.

[Michael Findlay]

Hi Huib. There is no manufacturers name but there is a number. The bearings at at the workshop so I cant check the ball size. I think you are correct though. They are probably Asian in origin. I bought them from Pitline in Rome.

[Huib]

Interesting.

I was offered a batch of 50 pieces some weeks ago at such an incredibly low price that I did not immediately order them. I let it sink into my feeling for some days and then decided not to even bother to order a sample. I look forward to hear what you find.