Cone-shaped Front Hub Covers - Necessary?

[bentcipher]

I'm curious... when you take the front wheels off exposing the hubs you notice hub covers secured with 6 large allen bolts. The shape of those covers is that of a cone.

If you take it off you notice that there really isn't any purpose for it to be cone-shaped, is there? Was this just a re-use from other model lines or is there actually a reason why the front hub covers couldn't be just a regular flat cover..

Ideas?

[Ldub]

As long as there is no protrusion beyond the mating surface, (axle stub, etc.) a flat cover should be OK...UNLESS, the cone shape is designed that way for a reason, such as increasing interior volume to accomidate grease expansion/contraction.

I've seen greasable hubs on boat trailers that have a spring loaded center cap, but if that's the reason for it, I don't know for sure.

[lasturbo]

As long as there is no protrusion beyond the mating surface, (axle stub, etc.) a flat cover should be OK...UNLESS, the cone shape is designed that way for a reason, such as increasing interior volume to accomidate grease expansion/contraction.

I've seen greasable hubs on boat trailers that have a spring loaded center cap, but if that's the reason for it, I don't know for sure.

I concur Larry.

[bentcipher]

That was my suspicion as well however, if you remove the Front Drive Axle cone-shaped cover exposing the center shaft and all that grease on it you will notice that the inside of the cover is clean and has no grease protruding that far inside the cover.

So I did some investigating and went to my local junk yard. All the Rodeos and Troopers they had the same covers as the Vx. One of the Troopers did have a flat cover and looked to have plenty of room inside for the Center Shaft.

As far as the grease is concerned, I don't think that it requires a whole lot of room for expansion/contraction - which I don't think it does whole lot either. The shaft assembly doesn't have any side-to-side play that would require clearance allotted should the center shaft protrude further into the cover so that's not it.

In other words, I don't think having flat axle covers would render grease ineffective or cause some kind of rubbing/grinding by the axle center shaft... so why didn't they use the flat covers then?

P.S. The reason I'm asking is because I do happen to have a flat cover that I'd like to put on as my new wheels leave that part exposed and quite honestly... it just looks... wrong...

[LittleBeast]

Yeah I have been doing a lot of moding to my CV's lately and have to take all of that apart to remove the inner CV, I have the whole CV replacement down to under and hour now, but yeah there is no reason that thing really NEEDS to be bulging out like it is. I would say try the flat one. Heck I might look for a couple my self

[bentcipher]

Forgot to post up a follow up on this... There /is/ a reason why they're cone shaped, the front drive axle nut mechanism protrudes outside of the hub so using a flat cover would be prohibitive.

Cheers