[Mgs] Renewing the MGA rear axle hub

[Robert J. Guinness]

My latest trials and tribulations involve the repair of leaking rear 
axle hubs on my 1600 MGA.  What is the wisdom of the list on the 
following issues:

1.    Is the hub exterior painted?  When cleaning up mine, there was 
just bare metal under the layers of gunk.  If painted, I assume black is 
the correct color.

2.    Do you pack the bearings with high temp. grease?  One source said 
yes, but the manuals and the mgaguru site make no mention of this step.  
The manual says that the bearings are lubricated only by the  hyphoid 
oil from the differential.

3.    How do you fully seat the oil seal in the hub?  I put silicone on 
the exterior surface and used the mgaguru site's suggestion of using a 
spray paint can as a press/driver, but there still seems to be a thin 
separation between the seal and the bottom (inboard side)of the hub oil 
seal seat.  (The paint can finally crumpled)  Is a slight separation OK? 
(One of the seals I bought was slightly larger than the other, I 
discarded the larger one because it just would not fit ;-)

Thank you.
-- 
Robert Guinness