TR2/3/3A Front wheel bearing grease seal with felt packing?

[karls59tr]

Soaked the felt in oil and squeezed it out. Installed the grease seal with the steel backing..... the felt facing the centre of the car. When I torque the castellated nut and D washer to 10 ft/lbs and back it off 1-2 flats the hole for the cotter pin is too far back. Is it possible that the felt packing is too thick? Anyone had this issue and had to trim the felt enough so that the cotter pin hole will line up?

 

[martx-5]

Yes, it probably is. There have been a rash of felt seals that are too thick.

There are a couple of ways to handle the problem. Get some thinner felt and cut out your own. Find a vendor that has the correct size (probably TRF), or, leave off the felt seal, assemble everything with the torque and backing off etc. Then mark where the nut is. You can count how many threads or something. What you want to do is take it apart and get it all back together in the same spot with the felt seal now installed.

 

[TR3driver]

That last procedure (check clearance without the felt) is actually documented in one of the factory manuals (tho I forget which one offhand). Sure is a whole lot quicker and easier than trying to trim the felt, or order from another supplier, etc.

You should be able to knock the felt back out, by resting a long punch on the inner bearing cone and pushing it out along with the felt & its backing. But be sure to keep things clean, don't let the grease get contaminated with dirt. Might be best even to clean the bearings before checking the clearance, and then repacking before you install the seal.

Ah, here it is. TR4 workshop manual

View attachment 29376

PS, the felts I got from TRF last year seemed kind of thick as well. Above procedure worked great.

 

[PatGalvin]

Early on, I had purchased several felt seals and compared them all. The TRF seal worked perfectly and required no modifications. Others were very thick and I could not get an accurate bearing adjustment.
Pat

 

[PeterK]

When I installed new seals, I was aware of the problem from the many discussions here. So what I did was to cut down the thickness of the (new) felt by about 1/2 before I installed them. Works better with the correct sized part. And use a new blade with slight sawing action.