Rear Hub Replacement

[Diesel Josh]

In further inspection of the clunk in the rear end, I have found that the splines on the rear hub are actually worn out, not the rear axel as I had previously thought (my apoligies to thebenzbin in this thread)
I have a donor car to get a hub from. After looking though the threads I have the following questions:

1. Do I absolutely have to buy special tools to swap the hubs?
(It seems 50/50 in previous threads)
a. If yes, how costly as I will probablyl not have to do this
repair again

b. If no, what is the procedure

2. Will I need to replace the races and bearings as well?
(I'm guessing yes)

The car is the 81 240. It has no symptoms of any problems with the rear bearings.

Thanks

[Diesel 924]

Yes, you need the special socket, It's about $60 from PP and you can resell it easy if you want to. Yes you will need a bearing kit, another $50. You will also need to eat your Wheaties. I was sore for a week after setting the bearing end-play on one of my rear bearings, about $350 lbs/ft. Just in case someone thinks that's a typo, I do main bearing bolts in Detroit Diesel's that are 200 lbs/ft(10 at a time) and the rear bearing endplay was much worse.

[samiam4]

You;ll need a bearing kit,

To install a new brg(and seat it). You'll need some talent and experience or a trip to a good machine shop. I personally get them to press of the old one and the heat in oil the new one and drop it on.

As far as tools- you'll need the tool for the nut which is $50-60. Everything else can be worked around.

The new crush sleeves are very hard to get to "give" at first. So, a locking down the hub and cranking on the nut is nessary. I've seen many shops reuse the old crush sleeve since brgs are very tight on tolerance and it seems to work(aka I've never done this).

Use a dial indicator on setting up bearings. Do it right and you'll never be in there again!

If I had to choose between redoing the hub or replacing the whole arm/brg/assy- I'd replace the hub.

Michael

[Brad123D]

Good advice above, but just to offer an alternative... I once "repaired" a tractor hub spline(very similar to a Benz but bigger) that was very loose, by using "JB Weld" to fill in the gaps! I could have started replacing parts but had little to lose by trying this. The splines were not stripped completely, and if yours are, then this probably would not work. This tractor spline set-up gets some tremendous force applied to it and it is rock solid after years of use ! Of course if I ever need to take it apart heat will probably be required, but that 's no problem.
If one of my 123's had a loose spline and good bearings, I would remove the axle, clean up both surfaces with brake cleaner or similar, warm up and mix some JB and coat the splines in the hub.( A thin film of oil on the axle stub would probably be good for easing removal later, if it was ever needed.) Reassemble the axle stub into the splines and carefully clean any excess JB off before torqing the axle stub bolt. Then let it cure overnight. I love JB !

[Diesel Josh]

Thanks for the responses. As tempting as the jb weld is, I will be ordering the brg kit and the socket.