|Date: 6-23-93 12:41am
|From: Dean Zywicki:dcrt:nih
| To: {british-cars@autox.team.net}:BITNET
|Subj: Grating noise on front end of midget
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Over the past few days my midget has developed an annoying grating
sound when I start from a complete stop. It seems to come when the car
is almost at the end of the weight transfer from stopped to moving, i.e.
the front comes up a bit and then starts moving forward. I think it is
coming from the right front suspension somewhere. At first it only did
it when I was pulling away from a stop, but now something seems to be
rattling around when I go over bumps.
It seemed to get worse after driving around the great streets of Bomo
(Baltimore) last night. The street running parallel to the railroad
tracks with tons of potholes really seemed to shake things loose.
This morning I took the wheel off and made a visual inspection but
couldn't see anything. I did notice that the 17 year old shock is
starting to leak now. Yesterday, I checked the suspension to frame
mounting bolts and they were fine. I also checked the bolts holding the
shock to the frame (on both sides), they were fine too. I checked the
motormounts to make sure they were still tight, they were. I
interesting thing I saw was what looked like grease on the end of the
hub. It almost looked like the the greases in the hub broke down and
was leaking out of the grease cap fitting. Do midget ball bearing wheel
bearings make a grating noises like that if they're on the verge of
death? I renewed both sides last year, but the grease makes me wonder.
I couldn't see anyplace where the motor could hit the body either.
This is going to drive me crazy until I find it and I hope I don't
have to take it to an LBC shop (maybe that wouldn't be so bad).
Any and all ideas, tests to perform to isolate things etc. will be
greatly appreciated.
Later,
Dean
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