TR2/3/3A TR3A front wheel bearing question

[Bob_D]

Hi,

Installed a new front vertical link with new stub axle on our TR3A and find that the wheel bearings don't want to slide on the new axle the way they came off the old one. Is this meant to be so? Do they need to be pressed on and if so do you have a recommended procedure?

Thanks,

Bob

 

[Tinkerman]

Bob, been awhile since I did my front suspension but I sure don't remember them being tight on the stub axel. I greased them up and installed them in the normal way.

I'm sure that some one out there has done one more recently and can help out more.

Good luck, tinkerman

 

[Andrew Mace]

I agree, Dick. Only time I've ever seen the bearings being a tight fit on the stub axle is when they've seized! Heck, that's how I got my first TR3A. LF wheel bearing had seized, and the PO stuffed the car in his barn. I made an offer, brought some tools, a file and a set of bearings, got it rolling and then flat-towed it home! All was well for the duration of my ownership of the car (another four years on the road and then 32 in the barn, but not related to the bearings)....

 

[TR3driver]

Should be a light push fit; but I have seen them cock and bind. Try starting over with a thin coat of grease or oil on the spindle. If they still don't want to go on, IMO either the spindle or the bearings are the wrong size.

Seems like someone else wrote about the same problem a few months ago, so perhaps there is a bad batch of bearings running around. You might search this forum and see what turns up (I don't recall what the resolution was).

 

[MDCanaday]

My advise is to make sure you get Timken bearings(as OE). This goes along with "do it once,do it right,drive and enjoy"
MD

 

[Bob_D]

Thanks for the feedback. Now here is the strange thing -- the bearing is the Timken that was on the old stub axle, so I grabbed the old vert link with old stub axle and it doesn't slide on that one either!? It came off that one so I'm not sure what is going on. Maybe the bearing gods are telling me to buy new Timkens instead of reusing the old, but I find it odd that it will not fit from whence it came.