How did the bearings look? Since you took the hub off you had to have seen them.

I don't have any idea what your metal o-ring comment is referencing. Quite possibly it's part of a half disintegrated inner wheel bearing?. Anyway, on the surface it sounds like one of your bearings has blown apart and those parts you're seeing are pieces of it. The small piece of metal is likely a roller from the tapered bearing. It would be obvious if one or more of them were missing by looking at the bearing. And the other part could be anything. And the glue - it's anyone's guess. Perhaps that's remnants of something your "british car mechanic" used during install.

 

Oh, one more thing. There's a white nylon water shield (see Haynes page 8.3 illustration 2.18a) that sits inboard of the inner tapered wheel bearing. Was that installed and in good shape when you removed the hub? If not, then the glue like substance might be remnants of that water shield after it was superheated. Just a thought ...

 

No water shield that I saw. The bearings looked fried. I thought when I drove it and turned back and forth I would have heard grinding, but I didn't... I guess my next step is to order something like :

http://gbcarparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DT-GHK1140

 

Yup. Before you order you may want to check out the right hand side as well. It may be in a similar state. The water shield isn't included in that kit, and I'm not sure it's required. All it does is keep water from splashing into the wheel bearings.

Seems you've found the problem. Should be a straightforward fix. Good job

 

Good point on checking the other side. Any thoughts on the cause? I'd hate to buy a new bearing kit, install it and have this reoccur because I solved a symptom and not an issue.

I'll look to see if I can find the water guard you mentioned, wouldn't hurt to have it.

now that I've dug around on this part am thinking I might rebuild the front suspension. Heavy Duty tie rods, new shocks, replace the cones (I left in the old ones when I put in the hi-lo), or replace the cones with springs. Figure since I am going to be taking it apart anyways may be time to upgrade...

 

Yeah, not sure about the root cause, although I can speculate: If the axle is not properly seated into the hub bearings then after a little bit of driving the axle will not be tightened to spec and the bearing will be too loose. This will cause premature wear and overheating. Also, can you tell if the bearings had grease? It's possible but unlikely that the shop installed them with minimal grease.

I'm now questioning my RHS wheel bearings since I only seated my LHS hub after it was causing me troubles. I have only driven mine around 100 miles though so it's possible that I haven't trashed my bearings enough to see a failure yet . I'd pull mine apart now and look but I've got the whole rear-end apart due to a subframe swap.

 

Finally got a chance to work on this. Here is what was left of my inner bearing...

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

I removed both races, repacked the bearings, and froze first the racers and then tapped in. I put the hub on. I am going to have to take off again. I couldn't get the tierod back on the lower control arm once I put the hub in. I think I need to reposition it better. As you can see the hub is rotated forward (towards the front of the car). So I am going to take off, attach the tierod and then reposition the hub.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

 

You didn't want to try to re-use that old bearing?

It's great that you have a handle on it. Now get that baby back onto the road!

 

I thought about using the bearing, but I wasn't feeling that lucky

She'll be on the road soon. Waiting for new shocks to come in and new bushings for the tierods. They come in on Wed I think. Can't wait. Thanks for the help!