Did your bearing have a "plastic/composite " housing, mine does. my big
concerne is the heat generated by
the constant pressure. I also have never heard of the " spring kit " what
is it supposed to do ?
john.kahoon@juno.com
71 midget
On Sun, 6 Sep 1998 07:57:40 EDT RJohn50603@aol.com writes:
>To all,
>
>I am taking a break this morning and couldn't help hit the list with
>an
>unexpected discovery. I'm sure many of us have MG projects going this
>weekend.
>I certainly have.
>
>Yesterday, my son's '76 Midget just got a new left rear leaf spring.
>Couldn't
>see any cracks in the old one, but it sure got weak suddenly. Never
>replaced
>one of those before. A nice three hour job balancing many forces with
>hydraulic jacks.
>
>The main project is that I took the engine out of my '73 B two weeks
>ago.
>First time it has been out of service in five years! There would
>normally be a
>panic to get back in (it is my daily driver), but my wife has had some
>surgery
>so I am driving the family car.
>
>Anyway, The reason the engine and transmission are out is the clutch
>won't
>completely disengage. I just knew it was the throw out bearing. I put
>one of
>those roller versions on it in '94 because I just couldn't believe
>that carbon
>style could hold up.
>
>A couple of years later I was e-mailing Damit Dick (miss him) talking
>about
>the roller bearing and got beseeched by everyone who was listerning
>that the
>heavy duty roller bearing would fail sooner than the standard carbon
>one
>because the "residual hydraulic pressure of the system would keep it
>in
>contact with the pressure plate" unless a specal spring kit was also
>installed. Well, VB sells the bearing, but no mention of the spring,
>so how
>was I to know?
>
>I lived in dread of the premature failure of that bearing for the past
>three
>years. Finally, it happened.
>
>This morning I installed the new clutch and standard throwout bearing.
>I was
>amazed to see that the old bearing surface was not ground to bits and
>that the
>bearing was still smooth and serviceable. I was also immediately
>concerned
>that I had now overlooked something else!
>
>I picked the old bearing up for another look 30 minutes later. Upon
>closer
>examination, what I found was bizzare! The two pivot ears on that old
>bearing
>were worn to less than half of their original diameter in the forward,
>rearward direction. The normal diameter of those ears is about .550".
>The
>measurement is now .260" Of all the ways that bearing could fail, the
>extreme
>wear to those pivot ears is amazing considering the slight motion they
>go
>through. I can also tell you I wiped a little grease on those ears
>when the
>bearing was installed five years ago, as I did again today.
>
>The loss of travel by this wear was not letting my clutch disengage
>completely!
>
>By-the-way, the fork appears to have no excessive wear at the
>adajcient points
>(good, because I don't see them in anyone's catalog).
>
>I guess that the bearing manufacturer didn't harden the surface of
>those ears
>properly.
>
>I may contact VB and let them know what happened, but obviously, the
>warrantee
>is up.
>
>Has anyone else seen this???
>
>R. Johnson - Dallas
>'73 MGB
>'76 Midget
>'79 Midget
>'93 Maine Coon
>
>
>
>
>
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