> After rolling my TR4 into a ball last weekend because of rear axle
> failure, I'm considering switching to some form of MGB rear axle, which
> has a full floating axle in the later years.
MGA and banjo style (early) MGB axles are "half floating"
While the wheel will not come off if the axle breaks, the axle does
take some bending load.
The looser the bearings, or the more wear there is between bearing and
axle housing or between bearing OD and hub, the more stress will be
passed to the axle.
I broke 2 axles in 1 weekend before I dicovered that the bearing was
wobbling about on the axle housing.
In my experience, previous owners have not tightened the weird 8 sided
nut enough (100 lb ft +) and so the bearing frets the axle housing
until it can only be recovred by welding and regrinding or
replacement.
Which brings me to my point.
If you do get one of these, inspect the nuts for signs of cold chisel
tightening butchery (no way to get em tight enough) and inspect
carefully for axle housing wear. And no, Loctite 602 wont help a
wobbly bearing and no, center punching the mating surface until it
looks like the surface of the moon also doesnt last for more than a
weekend. Must say, I hadnt thought of welding though...hmm. Why not
if the alternative is to toss it anyway?
Wire wheel MGA and "tube" (later) MGB axles seem to be fully floating,
according to my parts list.
>From the Moss MGB parts catalog:
"Prior to 1965 all roadsters were fitted with banjo style axles. From
65 ..67, there is a mixture, from 67 on all tube style. MGB GT were
all tube style."
The axle is splined both ends and therefore the outer spline will not
transfer any cornering load to the axle.
No personal experience on MGB stuff here.
Malcolm
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