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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>[Xposted on the Forum]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>If you’ve had a spun rear wheel bearing and/or leaking seal, this may be of interest.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Recently one of my rear wheel bearing seals started to leak. Ordering a new seal from Tom’s Import Toys, Tom Monaco mentioned the leakage was caused by heat from the bearing spinning in the housing, and that he’d replaced about a hundred rear wheel bearings to fix this problem. The cure was to install a new bearing using a combination of heat and cold to shrink-fit the bearing into the hub and onto the axle. I’m guessing the hub housing has some wear if the bearing’s been spinning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>According to the Manual, Section J, the bearing spacer must protrude .001” - .004” beyond the paper gasket. This allows the lug nuts to tightly metal-to-metal grip the outer ring of the bearing in the hub. The inner ring is tightly gripped by the center octagon nut. (Thanks to Gary Hodson for pointing this passage out.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In my opinion, the spun bearing problem is caused by excess thickness of the replacement gaskets, which prevents positive gripping of the bearing outer ring, as called for by the manual.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I measured my non-gasket clearance at .004”. This can vary as the thickness of the bearings can vary by a few thousandths (.900” and .905” on two old bearings I have).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Moss replacement gasket is .015” thick and compresses down to approximately .011” – therefore the bearing outer ring is not gripped at all and the hub depends on the shrink fit of the bearing only.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In my opinion, the solution is to make your own gasket from paper such that the thickness is .001” less than the protrusion as measured above. Legal pad paper is .003”; copier paper is .004”; 9x12 envelope paper is .005”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>If your car doesn’t have the o-ring, or you don’t have a micrometer, you could leave the gasket off and use a thin bead of gasket goop, such as Right Stuff or Form-a-Gasket to effect the oil seal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Axle flange note: The outer edge of the axle flange is not distorted by being unsupported by the gasket. Because of the thickness of the brake drum and splined hub flange, in combination with the strength of the hub itself, the flange will not distort by tightening the lug nuts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Would be curious to measure an original gasket from back in the day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Documentation: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/healey_rear_bearing">http://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/healey_rear_bearing</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>--<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Steve Gerow<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Altadena, CA, USA<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>BN6<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Check out my galleries:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>http://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>