[Spridgets] Front wheel bearings

[WeslakeMonza1330 at aol.com]

Here in the UK it's MOT time for my Sprite soon and recently I discovered a 
 small amount of play in the wheel bearings on one side of the car.
 
As things turned out I left this until I bought some new discs so I can do  
discs and bearings together.
 
Eventually I decided to replace the w/w hub as well.
 
Since the price of the hub easily exceeded my non-existent budget,  
especially after a repair to the household heating/water boiler and an unrelated  
fridge replacement, I decided to use the no-name bearing kit I bought from 
ebay  some years ago.
 
After fitting the brake disc to the hub and installing the bearings (new  
distance spacer) I was really disappointed to find there was loads of play in 
 the wheel - certainly more than I'd want to even think about driving the 
car  with.  I wasn't entirely sure I'd got the front / outer bearing in the  
right way round so I reversed it (no-name bearings don't have thrust marked) 
and  I couldn't see any difference.  I'd already measured the new distance  
spacer which was 1.497" whereas taking the old distance spacer from the old 
hub  revealed it was 1.500".  So I fitted the longer distance spacer - no  
difference.
 
So, while I'm fairly confident the rear/inner bearing is the correct way  
round would it make enough difference to create a huge amount of play?  I  
suspect not.
 
Also my experiences in the past is that I've managed to get the bearings to 
 really bind but don't recall ever putting it together with a pile of  
slack.
 
I'm loathe to go back down the garage tonight and reverse the rear bearing  
only to find I was right the first time and discover the bearings are  crap.
 
I've been to Norm's page: 
_http://www.mgexperience.net/article/mg-midget-wheel-bearings.html_ 
(http://www.mgexperience.net/article/mg-midget-wheel-bearings.html)  and  it seems that something is seriously wrong if I can't get 
the bearings to go  tight with even the too short spacer.
 
So - rear bearing wrong way round (can't even remember which way round it  
went) or crap bearings?
 
Weslake-Monza 1330