60766244's 1990 Brumby Wheel-hub conversion from 4x114.3 to 4x140

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When I bought the ute I was told it had two stud patterns and that was why it managed to have such unusual (for classic Subaru's) wheels.




Though very pretty, the low-profile, 17" rims made for uncomfortable touring and were (though not tested) unsuitable for off road use. These rims were in the 4x114.3 pattern.

I stumbled across a perfect set of 13" rims in the 4x140 stud pattern - and purchased them.


This thread is about bringing the Brumby back too the roots of style - the 4x140 pattern. Though no drilling was required, these photos should prove useful for those planning on drilling out hubs.

I'm not the most mechanical, and to those who are this will be a very simple process, but I documented it so I might as well post it.

My understanding of it is the more usual conversion process is done into the 6x139.7 stud pattern for off-roading Subaru's as rims are cheap and plentiful in many sizes and styles.

One simply needs to bang out two opposite bolts, then line up a 6 hole wheel and go from the template with a drill-press. The site mentioned below explains it neatly.

This ute had been made 4x114.3 - presumably due to the subtlety of still using 4 stud rims. There are many rims in the 114.3 pattern available, though most not suited to heavy off road use.

Speedy Wheels will make no rims in the 4 stud patterns currently. Performance Wheels will make 15" by 6" 4x114.3 rims custom for ~$1200 delivered, from SA to WA. - Just in-case anyone was curious.

Now, on with the take-apart.

Step 1:
Parked her up, jacked her up, one wheel at a time.

Step 2:
Wheel off, pulled out split-pin, un-did nut, un-did four smaller bolts and off came the hub. No rattle-gun so a breaker-bar and some pipe did the trick on that big nut - damn tight it was.


A pretty basic set of ram-shackle tooling.


Once I had the hub off over to the bench I went to wack out the bolts and put them back in their original positions.

All information I had when I started the hub change-back came from this excellent website Here - http://offroadingsubarus.com/6stud_conversion.html

On the site it suggested I use wood as a buffer between the bolt and the hammer-blows so as to not destroy the bolts.

After much sweat and swearing and a lot of noise I had gotten no-where. Soft wood dented, then split, hard wood held out, then would split unexpectedly. Though I had split some wood for the stove it seemed I was going no-where.


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So, it was time for another solution. I grabbed one of the "security nuts" that were with the current 17" rims and decided it was to be my block of wood. That nut never knew what hit him.


I draped the vice in some rag then screwed the nut about 50% of the way down the thread with my fingers.


Note: If done 100% of the thread of the nut it would jam on once hammered down. Mighty hard to free up once jammed. This was due to the thread length on the bolts. - Pic related. A lot of careful tapping freed that up.


Anyway,

After three or four moderate hits with the smallest - the ball-peen hammer, the bolt came away easily. The moment of truth came - the nut came off with fingers, just as it had gone on. Relieved, I continued.

The first win.


Excuse the mess, we're moving house and the garage is a shambles!


I removed all the bolts before I put them back in the original spots.
To bang them in I found a sturdy, mean looking bolt from a box somewhere to be my punch, as all my actual punches were to pointy for what I wanted to do.


(Excuse the mix of disk-hub and drum-hub photos, I took photos as I remembered too. )

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Another shot, I'd switched to the old claw-hammer by this point.

I should note it's good to make the bolt "feel" the old grooves before you try hammer it in to make it a whole lot easier to seat flush. The bolt must sit flush lest rocking occur and failure in the bolt happens.

I rinsed and repeated this step for the whole hub, and each hub, until they looked something like this.


I tested the fit on a 13" wheel I had sitting around to make sure everything was square and fit as it should.

I then wiped out all the old grease that looked a bit skanky and dirty and then regreased it before I put it back together.



One last check it really did fit.


After that I (took the wheel off again), put the cone-washer, the flat washer and the nut back on, cranked them up as tight as I could muster with the breaker-bar and pipe setup till it looked like it did before I pulled it apart, and put the split pin back in.

Putting the wheel back on for real I put both types of wheel-nut I had at my disposal on for a photo. The security nuts looked ridiculous. The other, more usual looking nut in the photo belonged on a 1997 Forester I scrapped a while back after it had been in an accident (not me, family friend).


Wheel looking pretty:


First wheel done. Three more to go. The rear-drivers wheel went off without a hitch. Textbook easy.

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Post 4/4

The inside was pretty filthy.



The rear-passenger drum-hub refused to budge off however. After much sweat, tapping and cussing I went away, had a cup of tea and came back. I hit it eight times on (where as before I had been trying to tap it off) and the cone-washer came popping out on the eighth tap. The drum came off easily after this with finger-effort. This drum inside was very clean though! Go figure?

The front-passenger wheel went off without a hitch.

I went through one "bash-nut" per wheel, they deformed pretty fast but they did a very easy job of being my "blocks of wood". A good shot of the before/after effects of hub-bolt removal.


The threads inside were still good as new. Though, this is more of a custom security nut now.


And the end result.



... Only thing now is to paint those rims back to that sexy gloss black of the 17"s.