Hey folks,

I was lifting the D1 the other day and after I got the driver wheel off I noticed the brand new EBC rotors have two holes in them. Yeah, I knew there was a rattle but I never imagined this. I am pretty sure the stub axle is damaged. But upon further inspection I noticed that the caliper is actually what caused the rubbing/overheating and eventually causing the failure. There is a nub in the middle of the brand new caliper that is still rubbing on the rotor, not the entirety of the rotor.

Was this caused because of poor end float setting?
or is this something else that I need to diagnose in the axle?

 

First thing that comes to mind is that when you bolt up the calipers, the mud shield should be outside of the caliper. It would be pretty easy to put the mud shield between the caliper and the swivel pin housing.

I am not convinced that is what happened here, but it is possible.

 

Wow. That's awesome. Looks like they broke from the inside out. Maybe something like a rock got stuck in there and squished up between a hub bolt head and an axle bolt head, twice. There's a rub mark line on the outside. Might have messed with the caliper too.

End float adjustment will not impact that. End float aligns the position of the CV joint with the axis of the swivel pins. That's most important at extremes of turning. Lots of safety related moving parts around there, so check it out carefully. On the bright side, you invented a new way to ventilate brakes!

 

Walt,

it is entirely possible the mud shield is bracketed between the caliper and the swivel ball housing. I am going to check today.

so the pictures don’t show it but the caliper in the middle of the caliper has this nub that is about an inch long and as the top hat rim of the rotor spins the sections where the holes happened it directly clips,
rubs, and I’m assuming eventually caused the failure and extreme metal fatigue.

the interesting part is that it doesn’t rub completely around the top hat rim uniformly. Which is why I do believe verifying the mud shield position is a must...

I did this job in December late at night, rushed trying to get it done. I will shamelessly report back if it is so...

 

UPDATE: Stub axles on order, hubs on order, timken bearings, and a positive attitude on back order. Got some stuff done today. I broke a rear upper shock bracket. Attempted to drill out a rotor to hub bolt on the non pictured hub. Pulled the non destroyed one off, have a twist of each rotor to hub bolt and one just pulled right off. The pictured hub below has a couple more bolts broken. So that’s… 4 bolts broken in a day. However, since I’m stuck breaking bolt sans parts I was able to take care of some frame rest and give it some love.

Land Rover Discovery 1 Stub Axle Damage. Potential root causes include: improper wheel bearing installation, failure to follow procedure, improper use of equipment, and inadequate equipment.

 

Wild pics, WildPack. Looks like the rotor bolt broke, or backed out and broke, then whipped around and broke the rotor as it got trapped between another rotor bolt head and the stub axle bolt heads. What could cause the bolt to break?

Here's my story about rushing a job. I had a faint knocking sound, front L, after doing some bearing and hub work on all four. It sounded only when turning one way. After driving a couple days, including on the highway, I finally saw four of five lug nuts were loose. Man I felt dumb. That's what I got for hurrying. I passed by the simple last step to torque em down.

The manual calls for Loctite 270 high strength (red) thread lock for the disc bolts. That stuff really works, but does need a torch for disassembly.

 

Johnzo,

Dude. Thank you for telling me that story… so did that mess up the stub axle and wheel hub similar to these pictures?

… I’m asking for a friend…

Because maybe that, “friend” swore the lugs were tightened down to torque specifications after the job was complete. Then that friend did the exact same thing you did, drive the vehicle about let’s say 10 miles. During that drive the “friend” heard a clunk as you similarly described coming from the front driver side. The friend immediately stopped at the local hardware store en route. Got out, looked at the wheel to investigate and noticed 4 out of the 5 were loose, and proceeded to waltz their way into the hardware store to buy the socket size, adapters, and a torque wrench because they needed a decent 3/8” torque wrench anyway. Torqued em down, and said to their self. Huh, weird sound. I should probably diagnose that eventually…

So… do you think that’s what caused the bad wheel hub?

For clarity, I was the,”friend” in that example…. That was me. I did that. Totally rushed it in excitement of completion I had to redo the rears twice and then was so excited that there is a good chance I didn’t torque them or at least rushed them if I did. Can’t wait to watch a child of mine do the same dumbass mistake.

Should have opened with the loosening/tightening of the lugs. Might not of been the only factor but it certainly didn’t help the cause.

 

When the time comes to replace the rotors next, no need to have slotted and cross drilled on a D1.

 

Wild, in my case, I was able to tighten up the lug nuts and motor on.

In your case, here's what I think. The broken disc bolt caused the holes by pressing from the inside out as it levered between a disc bolt head and a hub bolt head. If that bolt was loose, it may be that the vibrations from the loose wheel caused it to back out, then it snapped when it hit a hub bolt head. If the disc bolt was too tight (and possibly weakened), then it might have snapped due to the extra vibration of the loose wheel. One way or the other, that broken bolt head is what caused the damage.

That's my best guess from 10,000 feet up. The more I work on these old trucks, the more I appreciate still being able to purchase new bolts. Some bolts are more critical than others. Looks like disc bolts are critical. Thanks for sharing. I have found that Rovers North has a good selection of all the front assembly shims. I could not find other sources. Take your time with the shims, measure carefully, use the manual procedures. You won't know which thickness of shims you need until you assemble and measure. Good luck with the repairs.

 

Thanks for the advice on the shims Johnz. The shims and getting the thrust ring on the stub axle are the things I am worried are going to take some time and patience.

While I am waiting awaiting for parts to be delivered I was hoping to address pretty much every bushing and a frame ball joint

At this moment, I have the vehicle on jack stands on the chasis and I have jacked up the axle in the rear. The rear is currently awaiting a shock mount and the coil/damper installation. I was hoping to address the ball joint, upper arm bushings, and trailing arm bushings. I’ve been thinking about the effects of the axle as it rests on the jacks sans coils and shocks. Do you think the axle will rotate upon removal of the ball joint?