>I recently replaced both front wheel bearings and tracks on my '77
>Spitfire 1500. The job went well except that the new felt grease
>seals refused to go into their housing. They just seemed slightly too
>large and eventually I destroyed them in the attempt to fit them. I
>purchased replacements from Moss but these also would not fit. The
>old seals fit and the seals from a spare spitfire hub I have fitted.
>What am I doing wrong?
>Any ideas?
>Jonathan Miles
If the seals you tryed to install are like the ones I sourced from
Vicky Brit (the first, last and only parts i will ever buy from them)
for my Vitesse, then you probably didn't do anything wrong (IMHO).
The seals you described sound like the ones I got. In 25 years of
working on cars for fun I have never botched a wheel bearing seal or
any other pressed-in seal until that one. It is similar in design to
the original but the OD was quite a bit larger. I ended up using the
metal retainer from the old seal and gluing in the new felt.
I don't know how these will hold up. Later, I was in my local auto
parts mega-warehouse and looked in their bearing catalog. The brand
name of the bearing line is something like BDS, a generic blue box.
They listed bearings and seals for several Triumphs including GT6.
The seals were of the newer style with a neoprene rubber seal. I
bought a pair to keep on the shelf in case my rework of the old ones
fail.
Bad parts will defeat a good mechanic any day of the week.
Kurt Oblinger
Redondo Beach, Ca.
TR2 TR3 TR7 Vitesse Mini Doretti Norton
Dr J.E.Miles
School of Biological Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
0121-414-5884
j.e.miles@bham.ac.uk
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