• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

bearinlgs

Share this page

P

paul74

Member
Offline
I repacked the wheel bearings Sat. Then I saw an article, now I cant find it, about the mgb bearings. One is not supposed to tighten the nut and back off 1/4 turn as on other cars. There are shims that have to be fit? I did notice that when I took out the passenger side bearings out to repack that there was a single very thin washer, must have actually been a shim?, but no washer on the driver side.Do I need to find that article and understand it better?? I cant find mention of this in the Bently manual. Thanks
Paul
 
Paul, the front bearings are not fitted like a standard american system. According to the factory manual, assemble the axle with bearings and no shims. Tighten the axle nut until the bearings bind. Remove the outer race and fit with shims to produce excess end float (factory end float is .002 to .004 in). Refit the bearing and nut. To get the right end float, remove shims one at a time until you get almost no end play. Withut a dial caliper, this is the best you can do--good luck. Remember, there has to be some end float but .003 is almost imperceptible.
 
Its in the Bentley Manual - its called refitting a hub - Section K.2. But, you can probably search this forum and find a more practical description. I haven't had to do it yet, so we'll need to wait for the experts to weigh in here - but here's one article on it:

https://www.chicagolandmgclub.com/driveline/0402/jasw.html
 
"MGB's have a spacer and some shims that go in the hub between the bearings. Use them if you must, but you don't have to. These items are engineering overkill, not really needed, and not likely to fit properly with new bearings, so we'll leave them out and do this like it's done on a billion other cars. Tighten the spindle nut good and snug, rotate the hub or hub/wheel assembly a couple of turns, back the nut off until slack, and re-tighten lightly.
If a cotter pin hole lines up with the slots in the nut you're set. If not tighten the nut ever-so slightly and check again, if the pin will go in, do it. If still not back the nut off until it will. Give the hub/wheel a couple of turns, press/shake it sidewise and up and down to detect any looseness. No looseness? Bend the cotter pin to secure it. Looseness? Remove the pin, tighten the nut to the next slot. Some spindles have two cotter pin holes, one vertical and one horizontal. Look for this and use whichever one makes the hub fit best." - John D. Weimer
https://www.theautoist.com/wheel_bearing_maintenance.htm

That's how I do it also...if I have the shims that were there when I took it apart, I reuse them; if I don't have the shims, I do it like John says. Never had a problem yet.
 
The spacer and shims are there for a good reason. It adds rigidity to the front stub axle. When I used to service these cars on a daily basis , I could tell by test driving which MGB's had the front bearings adjusted properly. If you just drive an MGB nowhere near it's potential then it probably does not matter but if you drive it hard then adjust the bearings by the book. I like to slam my B into a four wheel drift in one or more of our interstate sweepers north of town whenever I get a chance. Fun..

Alan T
 
Thanks everybody. John, that was the very article I lost track off, and I just plain missed that section in the bently. I am not drifting around corners anymore but I dowant to find out what "end float" is.
Paul
 
Back
Top