Ever since I finished the restoration on my '80 MGB some
two and a half years ago, I have had a problem when I cut the
wheels hard to the right. It felt like something was binding one or
both of the wheels.
Looking at my maintenance records last weekend, I realized that
I had never repacked the right front wheel bearings in the 9 1/2 years
and 40 k miles since I bought the car. Given that the car had only 38 k
miles on it when I bought it, it was likely that those bearings had
NEVER been done since the car left the factory.
Taking the rotor off, I found that the inner bearing was in good shape,
but the outer one sounded like a ratchet when I turned it. When I
immersed it in solvent, all this rusty looking stuff came out of it.
I replaced the outer bearing and repacked both inner and outer
with fresh grease and the binding problem has disappeared.
The lessons:
1. If you have not looked at your wheel bearings in the past 30k miles
or so, it might just be a good idea to do so.
2. If you have some odd behavior in the front end that you cannot trace to
anything else, have a look at your bearings.
It is a rather scary thought that I was driving on a bad outer bearing for
2 1/2 years and the only symptom was this binding feeling when I cut the
wheels hard to the right. The way that bearing felt when I took it out, I
don't see how the wheel could even turn.
Peter Schauss
Long Island, NY
1963 BJ7
1980 MGB
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