Wheel hub rust issues (again!)

[1987cp]

When I first tried putting new brakes in my '12 Mazda5 (in 2018), I was all excited to be able to change rotors without having to unbolt the hub from the spindle like on my previous DDs. Little did I expect to find the rotor hats all fused to the hubs, so that I ended up despairing of getting them off and went out and bought new (used) spindle/hub assemblies. (And yes, they came off again 2-3 years later so I could have a machine shop press in new hubs and bearings for an irritating expense! Have anyone else's machine shops gotten lots more expensive?)

Yesterday I discovered the whir of death on one of my rear hubs, and ordered replacements that are supposed to be here in two more days. Today I had surprisingly good luck removing all 8 fairly rusty bolts retaining both rear hubs - except that now they're out, I've found that the hub flanges are fused to the trailing arms. I wailed on them a bit with a 32 oz ballpeen to no avail. I do have a couple of ideas for applying still more force (after soaking overnight in plenty of Liquid Wrench), such as hitting them with an even heavier hammer or bolting a very long piece of steel to the lugstuds and prying, but in light of my previous experience, I won't be astonished if I end up going out tomorrow and buying new (used) trailing arms.

Is this something other northern MZ5 owners have encountered? If so, how did you deal with it?

Oh, and how is that stupid ABS wire attached? I haven't gotten a very good look at them yet, but what I can see looks pretty different than other similar connectors I've encountered ....

 

[edmaz]

When I first tried putting new brakes in my '12 Mazda5 (in 2018), I was all excited to be able to change rotors without having to unbolt the hub from the spindle like on my previous DDs. Little did I expect to find the rotor hats all fused to the hubs, so that I ended up despairing of getting them off and went out and bought new (used) spindle/hub assemblies. (And yes, they came off again 2-3 years later so I could have a machine shop press in new hubs and bearings for an irritating expense! Have anyone else's machine shops gotten lots more expensive?)

Yesterday I discovered the whir of death on one of my rear hubs, and ordered replacements that are supposed to be here in two more days. Today I had surprisingly good luck removing all 8 fairly rusty bolts retaining both rear hubs - except that now they're out, I've found that the hub flanges are fused to the trailing arms. I wailed on them a bit with a 32 oz ballpeen to no avail. I do have a couple of ideas for applying still more force (after soaking overnight in plenty of Liquid Wrench), such as hitting them with an even heavier hammer or bolting a very long piece of steel to the lugstuds and prying, but in light of my previous experience, I won't be astonished if I end up going out tomorrow and buying new (used) trailing arms.

Is this something other northern MZ5 owners have encountered? If so, how did you deal with it?

Oh, and how is that stupid ABS wire attached? I haven't gotten a very good look at them yet, but what I can see looks pretty different than other similar connectors I've encountered ....

The rule of thumb for anyone planning to work on the underside of older rust belt vehicles is to expect an ugly experience. And far more often than not, that's exactly what you get. Good luck with this one

 

[1987cp]

Thanks! No, wait - whose vehicle are you calling "old"? :-D Now, my '79 Country Squire I bought in about 2004 that had the original floorpans completely rusted out ....



I guess I'll ask my 15 year old to have a look at the wire connector to that newfangled ABS stuff.

 

[1987cp]

And the bigger hammer worked! Well, actually, the back side of my axe ...at 3.5 pounds it's more maneuverable than my 8" sledge. The bits of hub that protrude into the big holes in the training arms were heavily crusty with rust and scale - quite unlike the rear hub on a '94 Corsica (that had lived all its life in Indiana) that I changed in about 2006, which came right out with no trouble.

Turned out the ABS thingies are connected with tiny spline-drive machine screws, and a crow's foot wrench on a socket extension is a reasonable substitute for the fancy muffler-hanger pliers. Now I just have to decide how best to fix the muffler's permanently attached lead pipe where it rusted through at the flanged connection.