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So I have a crazy idea, is it worth trying and is it possible to rebuild old rusted manual hubs?


Backpacker
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There's a d21 pick up that fell off a cliff near one of my local swimming spots I go to. It's upside down, smashed up and real rusty. But I was lookin at the manual hubs it once used. They look like some parts are aluminum, the outside doesn't look too rusted or bad either. What ever material that makes up the middle of them, between the Casing and the "manual" part of the hub is rotted away looks like it was plastic or something. What are the chances I can pull them off and rebuild them to their former glory?? I wanted to take something off of it and swap into my pathfinder like a bolt or something just for @!*%s and giggles but I really want some manual hubs and I just noticed it has them the last time I was there. Next time I go there (in the next few days I'm sure) I'll take some pics and port them.

 

 

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The outer casing is aluminum, the selection knob is plastic a d uses an o-ring to seal to the outer housing. There is also an o-ring that seals the whole assembly to the wheel hub. There are 2? Large but thin ball bearings in each unit along with the sliding mechanism that locks the CV shaft to the wheel hub when the plastic knob is turned to *locked*. Those bearings need to be clean and smooth turning otherwise you run the risk of them seizing or failing completely ruining things and making the hubs almost impossible to use.

 

The design is sort of like teeth on a gear that lock the CV shaft to the outer housing when the selection knob is turned and the inner assembly moves outward I think locking the two together.

 

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Edited by RCWD21
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Count the splines on both trucks to make sure they're the same before you bother trying to rebuild things. Some are 27 spline, some are 28, and I don't remember when the cutoff was. Grab the hub bolts, too, as they're probably different. Not sure what to tell you on the plastics, but I would not be too surprised if the metal parts were still good. I've pulled parts off cars that had been half-submerged on a riverbank for forty years (redneck erosion control) and came apart easier than my road-salt-damaged '95.

 

My only worry would be that the rotten plastics could've let the rest of the hub fill with water and fester. Might not be as much of a problem in AZ, but I'd be prepared for the hub guts to be frozen to the CV shaft, or the spring inside to be rusted up and brittle (assuming the OE hubs are built like my Mile Markers). If a Nissan dealer can get you a rebuild kit, you may be able to replace the parts that would be most sensitive to rust. I don't see one on factorynissanparts.com, just whole hubs at $330 each :lol: but there may be something out there.

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I have a set of outer manual hubs with plastic knobs in them (the internals are toast due to a bad bearing) but they're 100% clean and have been disassembled and lubed. The bolts are longer in the manual hubs and shorter in the autos. As far as I could tell all the manual hub bolts are the same length (I have a big pile of them from a few different sets)

 

Also the hubs went from 27 to 28 spline in the transition from 89 to 90. But the internals swap over. The 87-89 manual hubs have a little recess for the outer bolts while the 90+ hubs are just flush mount.

 

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Edited by RCWD21
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