The previous owner of my L405 5.0 SC decided to fit 25mm wheel spacers all round which I’m removing.

I’ve managed to deal with the fronts ok, however the nuts that bolt the spacers to the original wheel studs on the rear hubs have been torqued so high that two of them deformed when attempting to undo and I’ve had to grind them off which has damaged two of the studs.

It doesn’t look possible to remove the studs from the hub without removing it first? - there’s no ‘cut-out’ provided at the back to allow them to be knocked out. Although very tight, I managed to undo the centre hub nut using a long breaker bar and I’m now looking at the best method / tool to pull the hub off the end of the drive shaft.

Has anyone tackled this job and can recommend a suitable puller? how difficult is it to separate it? Is it realistic to do on the driveway? Keen to sort this myself if possible, especially as that wheel now only has three wheel nuts holding it on if I need to drive to a garage

Thanks

If you pull the flange out the hub, you'll need to replace the bearing

Ah, thanks Mikey - so not realistically something to take on as a DIY job then?

The flange is normally now pressed into the inner race of the main bearing. To press it back out is going to be difficult to support the bearing such that all the load isn’t transferred into he bearings themselves, potentially ruining the bearing or splitting it leaving part of the bearing attached to the flange itself. At that point your looking at changing the bearing too. Which normally means taking the whole hub off to put it in a press. If it were me, as much as I like the diy, I think in your case, I would get the hub + flange off the car as a whole unit, buy a new bearing and flange, and I’d give it all to a decent garage to press out and refit.

Flange: LR038379
Bearing: LR077894
Circlip: LR038382

As for pushing the driveshaft out … its either going to come out smoothly, or put up one hell of a fight. I don’t know the exact L405 method, but you normally need to disconnect the hub from its arms so that the hub can move outwards as you push against the driveshaft when separating them.

Halfords did a hub puller tool which bolted onto the studs and a centre bolt pushed the driveshaft. On an L322, the bracket wasn’t wide enough at the centre to fit over the lip in the middle that an alloy would centre on. I had to grind down the fingers to make them thin enough for the nuts to grip on the studs to hold the bracket. It broke under pressure. I’ll assume the L405 has a similar large centre lip to the L322.

On my old evoque, i bought one of the cheap hydraulic tools. Similar thing, a large circular (rather than fingered/spider shape) bracket bolted to the studs, and centre hydraulic ram device pushed on the shaft. My evoque put up so much fight that I had a breaker bar tightening down on the ram, and a MAP gas torch on the hub to get it to release. So much pressure built up in the ram that the seals gave up a bit, however it did the job. My pal who helped at the time couldn’t believe how much a fight it gave to free itself.

I would use the hydraulic tool again in a flash personally to push out a driveshaft.

You might find though that with a tap on the centre of the shaft, it’ll begin to slide out without much fuss. V8 or else ...

Appreciate the detailed advice Fisha

I was looking at this puller, which looks to be large enough to bolt onto the studs and I’d assume the centre bore of the tool will fit over the three raised sections on the flange that hold the wheel, although I’d want to check that dimension with the seller before buying it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252431874613

But if the bearing will likely be damaged in some way or another when either pulling the flange out or pushing the new one back in (which I assume can be done by tightening the large hub nut?) it may just be easier to buy a second hand complete hub, there’s a few on eBay for less than £100.

All this for a couple of damaged studs

That is the sort of puller I used. I dont know the dimensions of the evoque compared to the L405, but I dont imagine they would be that much different.

I'm not convinced that you would be able to use the driveshaft nut to pull it all together, the shaft wouldn't be long enough to go through the centre of the bearing and the flange before reaching the nut. You would need a bearing / bush kit with a long thread bar at a minimum, but probably better with a press.

A second hand hub is likely the easiest option, unbolt and refit the ebay one, and be driving again. That would give you time to fix up the damaged one. At £100, thats cheaper than the new parts, let alone labour costs.


As for lessons learned ... did you try reverse sockets ? They are twisted sockets which are designed to bite into the rounded bolt / nut when you are undoing them. The more you try and undo, the more they bit in and grab the nut. Yes, it damages the nut face, but they work well. I've hammered them onto nuts before to get them off. Maybe for next time worth thinking about.

Oh, and the best penetrating fluid for stuck bolts is dot 4 brake fluid. Brush a little on, walk away and come back later. Its worked best for me for years ... and being west of scotland, I've had my share of rusted bolts on land rovers. V8 or else ...

I had a similar decision to make when a rear wheel bearing failed on mine. I was lucky to find a hub & knuckle assembly on eBay for about the same cost as a new bearing on its own.

Some points to note:
A decent penetrating lubricant is your friend, (I use this available here and other places) especially use on the driveshaft splines after removing the nut
Be careful you don't break the ABS sensor when removing it
The lower suspension arm will need supporting even if you depressurise the suspension, this also helps when tightening many of the bolts which are supposed to be tightened with the vehicle at normal ride height.
The puller I had, which looks the same as the one you linked to, did not clear the raised sections of the flange, however I found that as long as the puller is square to the flange it didn't really matter as the load is taken by the wheel studs.

As long as the shaft and hub splines are clean and lightly lubricated the shaft should slide relatively easily back into the hub.

If you remove the hub flange from the bearing you will destroy the bearing. You also need to support the hub knuckle properly to avoid damaging it. Refitting the bearing and hub is straightforward.

fisha wrote:

As for lessons learned ... did you try reverse sockets ? They are twisted sockets which are designed to bite into the rounded bolt / nut when you are undoing them. The more you try and undo, the more they bit in and grab the nut. Yes, it damages the nut face, but they work well. I've hammered them onto nuts before to get them off. Maybe for next time worth thinking about.

Oh, and the best penetrating fluid for stuck bolts is dot 4 brake fluid. Brush a little on, walk away and come back later. Its worked best for me for years ... and being west of scotland, I've had my share of rusted bolts on land rovers.

As the fronts undid without too much fuss I just ploughed on with the rears but in hindsight, yes, reverse sockets (I even have a set of Irwin ones) would have been the way to go, opposed getting the grinder out

I’ve been using Liquid Wrench for penetrating fluid, to be honest I’m not sure how effective it actually is, so I may give brake fluid a try next time

Thanks Fifth Horesman - all things considered, I think buying a complete hub is going to be the way forward, plenty on eBay from £50 upwards.

Appreciate the tips on removing & refitting