[TR] Front Bearing Felt Seal

auprichard at comcast.net auprichard at comcast.net
Tue Oct 7 15:50:53 MDT 2008


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 at 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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