Pressing Bearings

I had a mechanic press the bearings in the early model hubs. The fit was so close I didn't think I would be able to do it. On Friday I went over to Parts Heaven, a Porsche dismantler in Hayward. It really is heaven for anyone restoring old Porsches. I left with a set of rotors and bearings. They were a lot easier to press in than the earlier ones. I used a piece of oak to pound in the inner race and 1¼" wrench socket to drive in the outer ones. After a lot of pounding they were all well seated and my neighbors must have been relieved that it went quickly. The inner bearing and seals go onto the axles, before the rotor goes on. One was a tight fit and had to be driven on with a hammer and a piece of tubing and the other went on easily, but with no looseness.



Another coat of paint on the mud guards and I'll be able to put everything on. I have a set of 320i calipers and ordered some more metric fitting hard brake lines.

A minor setback

With all the front suspension done, it was time to mount the rotors and calipers. Unfortunately I bought 70-72 rotors and now have 1973 struts on the car, so the calipers don't fit. Anyone need some front rotors for an early 914 complete with bearings? Oh well! On to the rear wheels. I'll fix this later.


I was going to replace the bearings, shocks, and springs. I need to get a 30 mm 3/4" socket first. Or maybe I'll just have a garage do it. There was just one 6 mm screw holding the old rotor on. I wrestled with that big hub nut for a few hours, barely budging it. But I did manage to bend and loosen the small screw holding the old rotor on. The new rotor and caliper went on easily. The worst part of this was cleaning all the caked on grease from the area around the brake line brackets. Now on to the left side.


This is where the 6 mm screw was that was holding the rotor to the hub. I had to drill it out. The easy-out took the head off and this is what I was left with. Just a thin sliver covering the hub threads. Time to put the drills away. I sharpened a small cold chisel and tapped away at any part of the screw that was sticking out; front and back. That got it off the thread and I was able to use an easy-out to remove the remains of the screw; preserving the threads in the hub.


So here it comes! No threads damaged. Drilling into threads destroys drills anyway. Just to be sure, I ran a tap through the holes.



Well that ended well. I'll have to order a few parts from Pelican to finish this, but it was a lot faster doing the rear wheels than the front.