[Mgs] I'm home, so the repair list starts

[Paul Hunt]

Does sound like it, had that on my roadster as well as a Scimitar GTE and it 
proved to be bearings both times.  The GTE was an amusing story:  It started 
squeaking near the beginning of a 200 mile trip, so I was a bit nervous 
about it seizing on me.  The closer I got to home the happier I got, and I 
was in time to get to the local dealer to get a new bearing.  Then a few 
miles from home the fanbelt broke.  Hadn't had the car long and hadn't got 
round to getting a spare yet, so it was on the phone to the AA (roadside 
rescue).  A van came out but none of their belts fitted although some were 
quite close.  He called up some other vans and eventually there were about 
four of them, none of them with belts that would fit.  Then I thought that 
if we removed the adjuster bolt altogether we might be able to get the 
alternator pushed in a bit more than the adjuster allowed, and so get one of 
the belts on that were only a bit too small on.  Sure enough - and it proved 
to be one of the belts from the original van!  By this time the parts place 
was shut, so I went next morning.  When he was pricing up the parts he said 
"You should have come yesterday, they went up by 15% this morning".

When I changed the roadster bearings I found that the original shim set was 
right, but you might like to get a couple extra each of the thin (.003) and 
medium (.005) shims just in case.  I'd strongly advise that you go with the 
shims and internal spacer as it came from the factory, although some will 
say you don't need them.  Without them the inner bearings can spin on the 
stub axle and damage it if not weld themselves to it, as well as the stub 
axle being weaker without.  Also replace the oil seal as I'm pretty sure 
that has to come out to get the inner bearing outer race out.

Lever out the old oilseal and drift out the old outer races.  Tap in the new 
outer races - bearing surface facing outwards - using the old race as a 
buffer between the hammer and the new race, keeping it as flat as possible. 
Dry-fit the bearings first to determine the shims.  Slip the roller cage and 
inner race of the inner bearing into the inside of the hub cavity, no spacer 
or shims at this stage, and cage and inner race of the outer bearing in from 
the front.  Fit the washer and nut and tighten carefully until the hub just 
starts to get a bit stiff to turn, this seats the outer races.  Remove nut, 
washer, inner race and rollers, then fit the spacer, shims, outer rollers 
and outer bearing inner race in that order, washer and nut.  Now tighten 
carefully, checking hub rotation as you go.  If the hub gets stiff again you 
need more shims.  What you and now trying to do is find one set of shims 
where there is just detectable wobble in the hub (make sure this isn't in 
the kingpin, A-arms or anywhere else), and another set .001 smaller where 
there is no wobble.  You then take the smaller set and add a .003 to it to 
get the correct .002 to .004 clearance.  You can get sets of shims in .001 
increments by juggling combinations of the three different sizes, you should 
only need four of the .003 and a couple each of the .005 and .010 to achieve 
this.

When you have the correct set take out the rollers and grease them.  Inject 
or press grease in with a finger tip from one side only until it comes out 
the other side.  Don't be tempted to press some in from both sides to speed 
things up.  Also fill the cavity in the oil seal with grease and its lip. 
Don't put any more grease in the hub cavity than that.  Refit, torque up to 
40lb ft, then torque up some more until the first set of split pin holes 
line up which should be before 70 lb ft - the maximum.  Fit split pin.

PaulH.

----- Original Message ----- 
> More immediately, I am hearing a intermittent, steady squeaking that
> goes away when turning right and intensifies when turning left.  I'm
> thinking wheel bearing, would that be accurate?