There's been a lot of certainty here about having to rebuild the front
wheel bearing package the way it was originally designed, but nothing about
WHY.
All MGB's (and I believe the A's and the later T series) were designed with
tapered roller bearings, a cup spacer and shims. If you were to look in
your Bently manual on page 232 you will see a cross-section of the unit
(fig. K.1). You will see that surrounding the stub axle itself, starting
from the kingpin end are; the oil seal, the inner bearing, the cup spacer,
the shims, the outer bearing, the retaining washer and then the hub nut.
This combination, with the inner races of the bearings trapped between the
oil seal, cup spacer, shims, and retaining washer, effectively build a
second and larger diameter inner cylinder around the stub axle using the
axle as a stabilizing inner core. In order for the outer bearing to be
placed at the proper position for the correct preload, shims of different
sizes must be inserted between the outer bearing and the cup spacer. Then
the hub nut is installed at a huge torque and the entire unit is bound
together.
What this effectively does is to increase the diameter of the stub axle
making it that much stronger. You CAN build the bearings into place without
these pieces, but the real danger involved in not using the spacer and
shims is that you will be driving around on a set of front stub axles that
aren't as strong as the engineers had intended for the forces ivolved. The
probability of bending or even breaking an axle when encountering a pothole
at speed multiplies exponentially.
I don't have the numbers, not being a professional engineer myself, but at
the possible cost of an entire stub axle replacement or the loss of life,
limb, etc., my recommendation is to suffer through the extra beer drinking
time it will take to build it correctly. The most THAT will cost is an
extra six-pack and maybe a visit to the chiropractor.
Now, are there any questions?
Glenn
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Glenn Schnittke
schnittke@mindspring.com
Home: 615-385-2800
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