I need to replace the front wheel bearings on my 70 1.7, as they are making noise, especially the driver's side.

I have a pair of rotors from my '73 car that I parted out about a year ago. They only have a few thousand miles on them and I have the bearings as well. I was thinking of just swapping them in for the rotors/bearings that I have now and I'd be done with it. However, I noticed that Pelican sells two different rotors, an early and a late. I'm wondering what the differences are, and whether I can use these rotors or not.

Also, if the bearings are noisy is that a likely sign that the spindles are worn as well?

-Tony

QUOTE (TonyAKAVW @ Apr 4 2005, 09:53 AM)

Also, if the bearings are noisy is that a likely sign that the spindles are worn as well?

As long as the bearings didn't totally freeze up, the inner bearing race will protect the spindle. Mine did the same thing, making noise and while the bearings were shot, the spindle is in good shape.

Spoke

I struggled with this a few months back as well. I am not exactly clear on the differences either, but I do NOT think they are interchangable. Do a search on rotors as this was discussed.

You COULD swap out the entire front strut (from your parts car), but that would be a whole lot more work than just replacing the bearings.

Assuming your rotors still have plenty of life left in them, just put in new bearings and races. Should only take you and hour or two. If money is tight, I suppose you could always pull out the bearings and races from your 73.

good luck.

Its not so much that money is tight, bearings are dirt cheap anyway. Its more that I don't really have a palce to work on the car since my roller (for sale) is sitting in the driveway, where I would otherwise work. So its more of a question of what can be done the quickest... This is one of the last things to do before my car is ready for the WCC...


-Tony

JR is right... they are NOT interchangeable... I tried this (only reverse... I tried fitting the pre-72 onto a 73+...

they do not line up right at all...

you need the whole struts and everything... the good news is you can sell the good ones and recoup most of your cost...

but, if all you need to replace is the bearings, you are only out around $20 as it is!

The differance is the "hat" offset from the mounting tabs on the strut for the calipers.

The rotors will fit, but when you go to bolt the caliper back on it won't line up with the disc.

Paul

Tony, the early and late style rotors are not interchangeable unlesss you change almost everything (rotors, struts, calipers and the wheels, pads and possibly even the lug nuts.)
a) rotor/caliper/strut. The offset built into the design of the strut, caliper and rotor are different by roughly 1/8 inch.
The late style rotor has a hub centric flange cast into the area surrounding the outer bearing. This hub mates up to a machined hub centric hole in the late style mag wheels which assures the wheels are centered on the hubs. This is a very nice upgrade to your early car if you do it right, namely replace almost everything. You may even have to replace the lug nuts to make sure you are using a set that is right for your late style (mag) wheels. The mag wheels use a longer bolt.
c) I'm not certain of this item but it seems to me the later cars used thicker brake pads. Maybe someone else can chime in on this item.
d) The early style struts used a thru bolt to clamp the lower ball joint to the strut as well as a ball joint intended for use with a thru bolt. The later cars used a tapered pin arrangement that also used its own style of ball joint. Intermixing parts between early and late cars would be VERY dangerous.
I'm not trying to talk you out of this conversion but be sure to do it right. It is much more then just a rotor change.
Early would be the 70 thru 72 model years. Late would be 73 and up.

Readers Digest Version:

Not interchangable due to offset and the later models having the centering ring.

You can see in the 5-lug conversions that we do there's an additional $35.00 tacked on the later model rotors. This is to machine off the centering ring so 5-lug Fuchs will mate up.