Front Hubs - 2019 SOTU
 

From an Andrew Kidd Facebook reply. Deserves a searchable thread, maybe a sticky.

There are four viable bearing options depending on your budget and needs

1. OEM or OEM replacement (Centric Premium). Likely fine for most people who are reading this. OEM grease, OEM-grade ball bearings, proper machining on the backside.

2. OEM/Centric Premium, but repacked with better ball bearings. G10 is usually good enough and is better than stock. The rounder ball will more evenly load all the bearings and increase grease life expectancy. Better grease will tolerate the heat. This is time consuming and you risk damaging the seal, but it's not difficult. **

3. Mazdacomp Endurance (NOT TAPERED ROLLER). This is the same as option 2, but a professional has done all the blueprinting tasks for you. These are markedly better than option 1, and are usually enough for things like Spec Miatas or HPDE cars.

4. MiataHubs Billet Hubs. The beefcakes. For endurance race cars, or big-grip forced induction cars, or anyone who has tried option 3 and only had it last 20-30hrs anyway. If you whine about how much they cost, you don't need these.




**Centric has sorted their inventory and marked the BAD hubs with an “E” for economy in the part number. Don’t buy those.

The Centric hub is part #406.45006 (Rockauto has them for $75 each). Do NOT get 406.45006E (with an "E"), which is their cheap version.This is the ABS version, it is cheaper than non-ABS hub.

RE: option #2 repack

You can repack the hubs without removing the seal and reduce the likelihood of damaging/deforming them. The cages are flexible enough to squeeze out.

Where's a good place to source G10 (or other) ball bearings for option 2?

I got a ton off ebay a few years back. I wish I would have known you wanted some and then I would have brought some up to you.

https://www.miatahubs.com/

Had to look them up just to see the price. $600 each, but they are beautiful!

:party:

It starts to look cheap compared to a ruined race weekend, a wrecked car, or worse. Plus not having to swap them constantly.

I was more curious and thought it would be beneficial to the thread...wasn't necessarily looking for some right now.

It's highly likely I'm an option 4 kind of guy...

What is the bearing ball diameter?

I like the idea of working around the seals.

If anyone needs seals, I use these seals from East Street Racing: Hub Seals

Apologies for spoon-feeding request, but is general consensus that Option 1 hubs are sufficient for HDPE use on 200tw tires so long as curbs are mostly avoided?

Generally, yes.

For those of us that may not have a spare front hub to measure balls, I'm interested in this answer.

Posts 95 and up in this thread discuss, but TL;DR seems to be 13/32"

https://www.miataturbo.net/race-prep...2/#post1376529

However those were from a Timken hub, Shieuend (sp?) had issues with the OEM hub he was going to repack, so your results may vary.

13/32" rings a bell. I believe that's the size for the current 11-ball hub. The very original hubs the cars were assembled with in the 90s were actually a 10-ball design with a larger ball bearing, so make sure you know what you have before buying a lot of them.

anyone interested in putting in an order for balls?

Ball bearing link

$22 for a 100 balls. $5ish for balls to rebuild 2 hubs.

I'm surprised that the BMW hubs hasn't been mentioned as an option. I know its still very new, but seems to show promise.

https://www.miataturbo.net/race-prep...olution-94536/

Very new, and relatively untested. Theoretically should be a good option, but I don't blame Andrew for leaving it off. He is a vendor after all, and his endorsement carries a lot of weight.