Between a few other tasks spread over 3 cars, last night I pulled the front hubs (the wheel bearings were shot) from the miata to swap in new ones. I did want to keep the extended quick-start lugs, obv, so I had a few extra steps. Last night I drove out the studs from the new hubs, removed the current hubs from the car, and PB-blaster'd the extended studs where they interface with the hub because I wasn't having much luck driving them out. Tonight after letting them sit for >24 hours, they were still a pain in the ass but I was able to get them done haha
Original hub. For them having 165000 miles on them with the last 10K or so being a dedicated autocross car, driven to and from events, I'd say they lasted a good while.
Grease on the axle stub.
Cleaned the stubs up with a rag. I think I'll need to get some emery cloth and really clean them up before reapplying a thin layer of fresh grease.
New, shiny hubs shown for comparison. The new studs were punched out already, so I'll have these to keep as spares with the car in case anything were to happen to one of the longer ones at an event.
And last but not least, in memory of the sacrificial Gorilla Lug Nut that I used to protect the head of the quick-start studs to drive them out of the original hubs. Using one $1 lug nut to protect $80 worth of lug-studs ftw. RIP little guy.
