Having restored two TR3s in the past 5 years, I am with Randall here, only I
stripped some of the felt off the seal on the advice of an old-timer who told
me "they don't make 'em like they used to". And there was a lot of
felt.........
Andrew Uprichard
-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Randall" <tr3driver@ca.rr.com>
> > When I installed Uncle
> > Jack's stub axles he specifically told me to install it with
> > the felt pointing toward the vertical link/engine.
>
> That's right.
>
> > One of the
> > guys in the Forum quoted Bentley & Haynes that said the felt
> > goes against the bearing.
>
> I would like to know the reference (page & version) for that; as I believe
> it must be a misinterpretation or misprint. I have a somewhat later version
> of the Haynes (copyright 1987) in my hands, chapter 11, section 2, paragraph
> 13 reads "Seat the grease seal on its spigot of the VL with the felt pad
> facing towards the centre of the car." There is even a diagram on page 196,
> Fig 11.2, that shows the steel backing plate for the felt separately, and
> closer to the hub than the felt itself.
>
> And that same sentence and diagram can be found in the Brooklands reprint of
> the Owners Workshop Manual (copyright 1993).
>
> > I emailed Tony Drews and Tony came
> > up with Pros and Cons about doing it either way.
>
> Well, to my mind, the overriding "Con" of doing it wrong is that the steel
> backing will rub against the steel face of the VL. The result is going to
> be noise, galling, eventually smoke ... not good things for front
> suspensions.
>
> But feel free to try it for yourself
>
> As long as we are on the topic (tho perhaps this has already been thrashed
> to death on 6-pack), I believe you should also set the bearing clearance
> BEFORE installing a new felt seal. Then mark the position of the nut (I use
> a Sharpie, but a center punch & love tap with a BFH would do fine) before
> disassembling to install the seal.
>
> The problem is that the new seals are thick enough to defeat the more common
> method (given in many tho not all manuals) of installing the seal first and
> then trying to set bearing clearance. The result of installing the seal
> first is that the bearing clearance (apparently) must be constantly
> readjusted for the first several hundred miles of operation, as the felt
> compresses and wears to it's final thickness.
>
> Setting the clearance first is in one of the Triumph factory manuals, tho I
> forget which one offhand.
>
> Randall
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