O.K., here is a question for the collective wisdom. Today as I was dismantling
a front hub (in this case it was off a TR-4) I scooped out a large hand full
of grease that was in the recess between the inner and outer bearings. In this
particular case, the grease varied from fairly fresh to grease that had
solidified and may have been there from when the car was new. Most Triumph
hubs that I have had apart have a similar quantity of grease in the recess.
The question is, why is there any grease in the hub at all other than that
which is on the bearings, properly packed? Will the grease that is in the
recess ever migrate from this recess to the bearings and even if it did, would
this be a "good thing". I would think that the centrifugal force would keep
the grease in the recess and thus it would never make it to the bearings. So
why are all the hubs semi-full of grease in the recess. It would seem that the
grease plays no useful function beyond collecting dirt, throwing the wheel
assembly out of balance and increasing the un-sprung weight on each of the
front wheels. So how does all this grease get into the recess? A properly
packed bearing will have a small amount of grease that, I suppose, could be
flung into the recess. But in order to accumulate the amounts that I usually
see when I dismantle a hub you would have to re-pack the wheel bearings daily
for years to get that amount of grease. The TR-4 hubs don't have grease
fittings so someone had to put the grease in there during assembly. Am I
missing something here? When in doubt, read the manual.... so I pulled out
three different manuals for three different cars, all British and with similar
hubs... A MGB, A TR-3 and a TR-6. Allowing for different interpretations of
what exactly the manuals are trying to say I found: The MGB manual says, and I
quote, "Do not fill the cavity between the bearings or the grease retaining
cap with grease." Seems pretty definitive. The TR-6 manual is equally
definitive (although a little subjective) and again I quote, "Partially pack
the hub with grease." The TR-3 manual was silent on the issue in the section
describing the hub assembly but when I turned to the lubrication section the
manual recommended 5 strokes of a grease gun every 5000 miles. The TR-6
lubrication chart only mentions "adjusting" the front hubs.The MGB doesn't
even mention the hubs on the lubrication chart. So, I can understand the
reason for the recess in the TR-3 hub... the recess catches the excess and old
grease from the 5 strokes every 5000 mile lubrication recommendation and the
hubs have grease fittings. Although it isn't stated, I would think they would
recommend cleaning out the recess occasionally.I also can understand the MGB
position of no extra grease in the recess and since there are no grease
nipples the recess doesn't have a chance to accumulate more grease. The TR-6
is the only one that doesn't, on the surface, make sense. The TR-6 hubs don't
have grease nipples and they want you to "Partially pack the hub with grease."
I can only ask why? Opinions????
Mike Denman
1963 TR-3A
1966 Marcos 1800 GT
1967 TVR 1800S
1973 TVR 2500M
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