Here in the UK it's MOT time for my Sprite soon and recently I discovered a
small amount of play in the wheel bearings on one side of the car.
As things turned out I left this until I bought some new discs so I can do
discs and bearings together.
Eventually I decided to replace the w/w hub as well.
Since the price of the hub easily exceeded my non-existent budget,
especially after a repair to the household heating/water boiler and an
unrelated
fridge replacement, I decided to use the no-name bearing kit I bought from
ebay some years ago.
After fitting the brake disc to the hub and installing the bearings (new
distance spacer) I was really disappointed to find there was loads of play in
the wheel - certainly more than I'd want to even think about driving the
car with. I wasn't entirely sure I'd got the front / outer bearing in the
right way round so I reversed it (no-name bearings don't have thrust marked)
and I couldn't see any difference. I'd already measured the new distance
spacer which was 1.497" whereas taking the old distance spacer from the old
hub revealed it was 1.500". So I fitted the longer distance spacer - no
difference.
So, while I'm fairly confident the rear/inner bearing is the correct way
round would it make enough difference to create a huge amount of play? I
suspect not.
Also my experiences in the past is that I've managed to get the bearings to
really bind but don't recall ever putting it together with a pile of
slack.
I'm loathe to go back down the garage tonight and reverse the rear bearing
only to find I was right the first time and discover the bearings are crap.
I've been to Norm's page:
_http://www.mgexperience.net/article/mg-midget-wheel-bearings.html_
(http://www.mgexperience.net/article/mg-midget-wheel-bearings.html) and it
seems that something is seriously wrong if I can't get
the bearings to go tight with even the too short spacer.
So - rear bearing wrong way round (can't even remember which way round it
went) or crap bearings?
Weslake-Monza 1330
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