Anyone Break a Hub/axle at a Track Event?? - I just lost one

[enginerd]

Good thing I was wearing my tinted visor...

I just pulled the hub face off the rotor. The hubs I got from H2Sport are made by Opitmal and are stamped "Germany." Is it safe to assume these are normally good hubs?

they have a website , and they are TUV certified. good old germans

http://www.optimal-germany.com/en/certificates-0

http://www.optimal-germany.com/en/wh...-axle-journals

i think you will be fine. Just stay away from plain brown box garbage. If they are afraid to put their name all over it you should be afraid to use it - regardless of country of origin.

I actually spoke with the guys at H2 sport years back after having these failures. They said they used all oem sourced parts, no discount parts because they had so many failures when road racing they knew better.

[1stgen]

Hey enginerd whats up? Tom from bmwcca, with the beetle? Gave up on the beetle and got the scirocco running in ITE. Ran the whole season on one set of bearings using the omg that is wY to big of a tourque wrench tightening technique. Probably was in the 500 ftlb range, won my class in the NEDIV woth no dns or dnf run groups. What r u running this year?

[enginerd]

I saw the ITE scirocco out there, didn't realize it was you. Looked like you were giving hell to some of the other ITE monsters. I have been out playing with the spec piniata's banging doors and doing body work. I had a mediocre season last year, but had a blast running the car. Did the 4 hour at WGI, and 2 HR at monticello. No motor momentum car has been tough to get used to vs the drag race and slow turns with the heavy vw. Overall very impressed with the miata chassis though its so balanced and the grip is amazing. I have been autocrossing one for years but never got it out on the track.

I went to one bmw club event last year, but probably wont be back. My last event i went to they just pissed me off. I showed up for the advanced group - scca club race license in hand - They wouldn't let me out without a "check ride" with an instructor. Well my SM has no pass seat, and there's a big petty bar across where you would put one. I borrowed an ITB car with a pass seat for a check ride, but the whoel deal was bs. No common sense - most of the instructors dont even have a club race license.

So i have been running with SCDA, CART, EMRA and doing the club race weekends. I have some friends in BMWclub that invite me to events but unless im bringing the vw its prob not going to happen. Right now im just working on getting faster in the SSM car, so ill prob just stay with SCDA, or just do more races.

PS your technique for the hubs works well = i exploded my breaker bar a few weeks ago using a jack handle lol.. I woudl still swap them out afer a bunch of races though, especially on an ITE car with big motor.

[1stgen]

I did the 9 race events and 3 or 4 track events on those bearings. Pulled the front end apart this winter and rebuilt the front end, bearings, ball joints and tie rods. Gonna be at the first NARRC event may 25th and 26th. Running in ITE again this year and tryi g ro decide what national class to build for...any ideas?

[enginerd]

From what I read the best thing to do is stay away from nationals lol. Seems like an ugly protest war, and rampant cheating but maybe that's just spec miata. My only experience with a "national scca" competition was an scca rallycross national championship back in 09. It was an ugly protest mess, so im not too motivated to go back. Seems like any "fun" is stripped out of it. No one drives 1500 miles to be nice.

The "PRO IT" class seemd like a reasonable deal - I didn't study it in too much detail but up at the glen last year they were running a longer IT race - I think it was an hour long with cash and tire pay outs for podium finishes. Im not sure how big the series was, but if your lokign to expand to other series, or more competition that might be an option.

I really enjoy the endurance races - probably since I am off the pace in my car and it takes me hours to get to speed lol. The 20 minute sprints are just too frantic and in SM it's usually a crash fest with everyone trying to "get it done" in the first few laps. If you haven't done one you should. They are a blast and a great way to get more friends and family involved and into the action as crew/ support rather than just watching.

[1stgen]

I want to go to runoffs and you cant do that in IT, qnd i dont think their going to be allowed in anytime soon with stl and stu around. So it looks like mk4 chassis stu car, only limitation being the ****ty ko3 which u have to keep.....and those ****ing hubs. Pm me your number so i have a way to get a hold of you.

[TheGreenspanator]

Just stumbled upon this thread so here's another zombie bump.. my mk2 hub breakage pics- happened at a BMWCCA event at NJMP Lightning back in October. Car was fine through the Lightbulb, but on the exit went BANG and ground to a halt- had no warning. Hadn't trailered it down so my husband had to come to the rescue with a flatbed

[mgyip]

I hate to say it but "Welcome to the Klub".

It looks like your car is fitted with the larger bearings but that only buys a bit more time before they go kablooie...

[IJM]

Well, it happened again. This time it was the other side (right) on the other original hub I got from H2Sport. Their replacement for the left side failure (pics a few pages back) has been fine. I was coming out of turn 7 at Watkins Glen when it failed. Fortunately it was relatively uneventful, and the axle was even fine. H2Sport is sending me a replacement hub, so now both the original "bad" hubs will have been replaced. Let's just hope this solves the problem.

[ITB45]

didn't reed every post, so maybe it was mentioned:
- what brand are the hubs(not the knuckles)?
- what brand are the bearings?

and has it always been the same brands?

[IJM]

The hubs are stamped "Optimal" and they came with the sport spindles from H2 sport. I think the bearings are F.A.G. This hub that broke and the one on the other side that broke last spring were both from the same batch from H2 sport.

[1stgen]

Well I thought we had been pretty clear as to what would fix the problem but....we will reiterate. Factory hub yep big bucks, Pegasus for the bearings, and put a 6 foot breaker bar and piece of d.o.m. Pipe and put almost 750 ft/lbs on the new 6 point locking nut, NO nylock nuts!

[1stgen]

Oh. And you have to retighten them every couple of events, I'm still running on mine and pretty sure enginerd is too.

[enginerd]

Tighten them insanely tight when cold then when they are hot make them another 1/8 turn.

do not use OEM nylon lock nuts - buy aftermarket steel lock nuts, or get the axles with the big allen bolt instead.

[1stgen]

Tighten them insanely tight when cold then when they are hot make them another 1/8 turn.

do not use OEM nylon lock nuts - buy aftermarket steel lock nuts, or get the axles with the big allen bolt instead.

Doesn't matter how many times we say these things....people still don't follow it. I'd have to say between you and I, within the United States have absolutely the most experience with this problem. Idk like 10 hubs I think? How bout you Justin? Before we figured out the problem that is.....now....no failures! Imagine that....so don't listen to us keep buying Chinese hubs and keep not tourqueing them to plaid ft\lb numbers...you want to get killed while going through the carousel at over a 100 miles an hour?

[IJM]

Just to be clear, which axle nuts are the proper ones to use? These are the OEM ones, and they're about $10 each at ECS Tuning. Are these the ones with the nylon locking ring that we shouldn't be using? If so, where do you get the metal ones?

[1stgen]

German auto parts has a listing for 6 point metal lock nuts for those axles.

[IJM]

This one? I'm not seeing any reference to metal lock nut. http://www.germanautoparts.com/Volks...ivetrain/309/5

EDIT: Wait, that's the 12-point nut, but that's all I see.

[1stgen]

I will call them today for you....they're my neighbors. LOL

[IJM]

Thanks. Incidentally, I called them already this morning, and they said those were the only ones they carried, and he didn't even think they had a locking portion on them at all.