Loose front-right bearing with Spoox 309 GTI wishbone and SKF driveshaft

[Maarten 0]

Hi,

My front-right bearing gets loose after each trackday, 3 so far. This started after fitting 309 GTI wishbones.
I first used 309 GTI driveshafts but the front-right was bottoming out with a loud noise and also a loose bearing. After that I have tried 2 SKF 205 GTI driveshaft but the bearing still gets loose.
Is this a known problem with SKF driveshafts and 309 GTI wishbones?
I believe the driveshaft bottoming out could have damaged the hub as well, but if there is a better driveshaft to use I would like to try that first.

[Anthony 1,000]

Seems unlikely if you've had three different shafts, but check the end when the inner side of the bearing clamps against - there was a whole batch/supplier with mis-machined shafts that meant that the bearing didn't clamp up properly and worked loose.  If you do a search, you might find the topic about it as I think it was within the last year or two.

[wicked 103 3 Cars]

It's a known issue with SKF shafts, often found on 205's. Hadn't heard it on 309 shafts yet. I'll double check my own, since recently put some on my trackday toy as well. (not driven yet)

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

I’d say it’s almost certainly the CV joint machined wrong. The 205 should have a very small cone between the splined stub and the flat part that sits against the bearing. 

Some of these SKF shafts the cone is far too big, so the flat surface doesn’t contact the wheel bearing and clamp it correctly.

I have dismantled the joint and machined the taper so it is correct!

[Maarten 0]

Thanks, for the last 205 GTI shaft I was given small flat discs to fit on the shaft to try and hold the bearing, but these did not help much.
Spoox recommended definitely using 309 shafts, so I will try a different brand.

 

[Ozymandis 96]

It will be the cone on the outer CV joint as Tom said, a simple cure is get a tapered stone in a die grinder on the back of the hub drive flanges and deepen the taper in them, then either rubbish shafts or good shafts will tighten up on the bearings and the problems gone away. I smeared tippex on as an indicator and torqued them up then kept grinding a bit off, tippexing and torqueing up took about 15mins a side. i have no machine tools but to someone who has this is simple to do.

There was a spate of crap Berlingo/Partner shafts and we did a few like that and all the ones still in my ken are fine, some are on starship mileages now.

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Ozymandis
syntax

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Picture speaks a thousand words. 

 

New shiny shaft has the wrong taper. Very close, but wrong!

[Maarten 0]

I haven't been able to find someone able to grind the hub flange but the Cevam 5171 and 5146 driveshafts seem to fit a lot better than SKF and Open parts.
The 5171 bottoms out just like the SKF 309 shaft on my car with a loud noise and vibrations, but the 5146 looks good so far. I will try this shaft on the next trackday.

The 5146 cone large diameter is 2-3mm narrower than on the SKF and Open parts shafts, so the cone has a straighter angle that fits better.
The shaft is hard to find though, I have only found 1 place in France. The Spidan shaft looks similar but I haven't found it in stock anywhere.

I will update if this works.

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Maarten