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tapered roller bearings

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It would seem to me that what is being accomplished when trying to set up the tapered roller bearings with the spacer and shims is the same adjustment that is used to set up MGB front bearings. To do that I always used a dial indicator with a magnetic base. Add more shims than necessary and measure the play. You then have a pretty good idea of what your shim pack should be. Tapered rollers are not really all that critical. A 0.001 or 2 guess will be close enough probably or the bearing manufacturer probably has spec's.
I think that running the spacer correctly shimmed should add strenght to the assembly. Apparently the original designer's did as well. Definetly need the back bearings shoulder to be located hard against the machined shoulder of the axle.

My .02,
Kurt.
 
And I would like to add my thank you as well, Tom, and others for the work on this. I have some NOS bearings that I began collecting off e-bay when it appeared they would be hard to get. When those are gone and I've forgotten this I'll be bugging you folks again!

Thanks,
Kurt.
 
Dug up my Torrington bearing book that had data for the "205" light-ball series in it. Looked like the filet radius on the bearing ID is standard at 1.0mm or 0.040". There were a few different styles of "205" series bearings, but all came with the same radius. Same radius as the 30303 pair.

Thanks for the additional information, perspectives and insights. Lots of good discussion.

Mike Miller
 
Recently purchased some XAA30205 Timkens. These have a very large radius on the cone. 1.6mm or 0.060" Fit the new RH stub axle just fine. Checked a bunch of my core stub axles and the filet radius', where the inner bearing sits, vary all over the place in size. The one I replaced had virtually none at all. That was why the 30205M fit without any problem. Didn't have to do any grinding. Fixing some race damage from the 2010 Prodfest at VIR. RF took a hit. No frame damage, but lots of front end stuff require work.

The XAA30205's are used in some Mazda and Ford gearboxes as well as Spridget front ends.

HTH,
Mike Miller
 
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