This very useful web page has a good description of hub fitting including
a brief discussion of the spacer issue.
<http://freespace.virgin.net/paul.hunt1/hammertext.htm>
It agrees that the spacer is important. And I'd have to think that, while
the boys at Abingdon weren't exactly high-tech, they knew what they were
doing within the limits of technology of the time (and if it turned out
they were wrong, they changed it in later models--it seems to me they
kept that hub design for 18 years).
>I posed this same question to the list several months ago and the best
>answer offered up for continuing to use them was that the spacer
>bushing, when used, increases the strength of the spindle. It was
>suggested by some that the spindle alone may not be up to the task
>either because of its size or metalurgical composition. Just yesterday,
>I ran across an article in a back issue of Practical Classics that
>stressed the importance of using the spacer. Bearing seizure and/or
>wheel loss were cited as the possible consequenses.
>
>Eric Zambori
>72 MGB
>
>
>Karl Shultz wrote:
>>
>> Hello MGers,
>>
>> Hope all is well with you getting your assorted brit cars ready for the
>> warm season. I'm coming along myself - I've replaced the brake lines
>> (which looked as old, if not older, than the entire 73 B itself), the
>> heater control valve (with a gasket now) some hoses, and made some hacks
>> into the electrical system whose effectiveness seems to vary day to day.
>>
>> Anyhow, I took a trip to Flying Circuis Cars in Durham, NC. They're a
>> Brit car specialist where I buy my parts. So I go to buy shims for the
>> front hubs (which rattled about horribly) and a guy came in from the
>> garage area telling me something interesting. I'd like to bounce this
>> off the group, it seems odd.
>>
>> He said that the big spacer, and the accompanying shims, could be
>> installed in the trash can rather than the hub. "Conical bearings can
>> accept the load themselves no problem; people used to think you had to
>> make perfect contact between the bearing housings with those shims, but
>> all the cars we work on, we just pull all that stuff out.
>>
>> Odd, no? I tried it. The hub can be put together and adjusted up just
>> fine without all this stuff. But concerned for the longevity of the
>> bearings (they say "made in england," so they must be as old as the car
>> too...) I haven't really finalized the work.
>>
>> Any thoughts on this odd suggestion?
>>
>> --
>> Karl Shultz
>> 95 Integra GS-R, black, loud
>> 73 MGB, orange, only marginally drivable
>
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB
runs great, looks scabrous
mountain View CA
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