First I want to thank everyone who has sent various forms of get well notes;
they are all appreciated.
I have grounded our bugeye for bad rear axle bearings and seals. I will not
be able to do this work until Jan but wanted to start looking at solutions
and ordering parts.
The problem is that in a few weeks of installing new seals it will start
throwing oil up the brake backing plate, onto the back of the tires into the
wheel wells. The seal area on the end of the banjo is smooth and has no
groove of wear.
The more serious, and maybe part of the first problem, is that within a year
of installing stock ball bearings the rear wheels start to wobble. If you
jack the rear end up, release the emergency brake grab the edges of the wheel
it will move in and out with respect to the center line of the car. Also you
can see the brake drum moving with the wheel. I can see no explanation for
how this can happen.
This is a bugeye with a wire wheel banjo from a 1961 Midget (1/4 elliptic
suspension) and Mk IV (1967) axels, hubs, wire wheels, breaks and backing
plates. This conversion was done in 1968 and do not recall having any wheel
wobble until after we redid the car in 1996.
Bearings and seals have been purchased from the usual sources and the past
couple of sets from a local industrial bearing and seal specialist. I will
be replacing the seals with Chicago double seals, assuming the the seal
surface on the banjo still shows no wear. The only place in the hub assembly
that would allow wobble is the bearing and even that is hard to believe.
Again assuming that everything checks out with the hubs and ends of the banjo
then the questions is what to do about bearings. None of the dual bearing
hubs that I have checked on work with wire wheels so those seem to be out. I
was thinking about using roller bearings rather than ball bearings. It does
not appear to me that there is any thrust or side loads on the rear bearings
the way there is on the fronts so can seen no reason for not using roller
bearings.
Looking for comments, suggestions or someone who has successfully solved this
problem.
Annice & Bob
1960 Bugeye (Mk. IV in disguise)
1966 Sprite Mk. III (Still in Boxes)
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