Wheel bearing housings

[1.8T]

Not sure where the best place is for this so feel free to move it if you dont think i have posted in the appropiate place, i require some custom wheel bearing housings of a similar design to the picture, either that or to have some modified but im not so sure about that, does anyone know of a company that could produce or modify to my spec?

 

[Wedg1e]

I wouldn't be too keen to have any 'modified', they're usually forged items - called 'uprights' or hub carriers I believe.

 

[1.8T]

I did read how they where made and what from ages ago but cant remember now, yeah not really keen on having them modified unless it can be done safely hence looking into whether it is possible to have some made just no idea who to approach

 

[squizzel]

My dad owned a place that made these,and con rods / bearing caps, and yes they were / are drop forged or made on an extremely large press, then machined. Not really a good idea to modify as it could create un-nessesary stresses and cracks.
Mark

 

[rockjock620]

It's not impossible, it will simply be expensive. I have a mate who does this sort of high grade manufacturing, mainly for the medical sector (artificial limb joints etc) but the tooling and machining costs will be horrendous. You need to ask why and where you need it to be stronger, lighter or whatever and consider other approaches to solving you problem, or seek out similar items from the same vehicle manufacturer, maybe from a better spec car or even a van if available. What is the issue with these ones?

 

[BeeJay99]

Not sure where the best place is for this so feel free to move it if you dont think i have posted in the appropiate place, i require some custom wheel bearing housings of a similar design to the picture, either that or to have some modified but im not so sure about that, does anyone know of a company that could produce or modify to my spec?

How similar to the picture; little bit or quite a lot almost the same only different? If you want help finding some, a couple of clues like what is it for/from might help folk here help you a bit more. When you say "custom items" do you want forged items (which would be pretty expensive) or would fabricated uprights do the job for you? Something like the one shown on this page? Not the best picture I can find but in a bit of a rush this morning and absolutely no connection with the business whose website it is.

 

[1.8T]

The intention was to fit them only a mk1 golf, they are mk3 golf housings, reasons are they are bigger and stronger, have bigger bearings, you can bolt on bigger brakes without the need for adapters and finally you can get genuine parts for them which you cant for the mk1 golf items and its a struggle getting good quality aftermarket, in the picture left (as you view picture) mountings are for brake caliper, right is steering arm and upper is the strut mount, what i want is very smililar to the picture well identical other than the steering arm needs to be higher (nearly 2 inches higher), one way of making the pictured unit work is to use a spacer between the lower ball joint and the bearing housing, this brings the steering arm to where it needs to be, changes the ride height and wishbone angle (not an issue with coilovers) but raises the driveshaft which is what i need to check as im worried about this, already putting a lot of power through these driveshafts so angle is important, quick look at the car tells me the driveshaft is just under straight at the moment so with a 50mm spacer and a 50mm suspension drop to compensate that raises the driveshaft 100mm i did wonder whether it would be better to run a spacer between the steering arm on the upright and the ball joint and to replace the ball joint with a rose joint instead, just not sure how it would stand up to our roads, i really dont like spacers hence was looking into whether it where possible to have something made

 

[reno]

From what you've said apart from the steering arm position the hub carrier is suitable. Therefore why can't you change the track arms to suit? I think it would be far easier and cheaper to have some custom doglegged track arms made. To me from the information you've given it seems like the most workable solution.

Cheers, reno

 

[1.8T]

reno i have just finished editing the above to include more detail, reason for the different steering arm heights is that the mk3 golf had the a subframe and the steering rack was mounted on that, on the mk1 it doesnt have a subframe and the steering rack is mounted on the bulkhead and thus is higher up

 

[1.8T]

Silly me, with ball joint spacers the driveshaft is raised 50mm after lowering the vehicle 50mm to compensate not 100mm, the wishbone would sit at the same angle as before and the steering arm would be in the right place