[Zmagnette] wheel bearing lubrication

Fletcher Millmore gofanu at cust.usachoice.net
Fri Mar 7 18:58:58 MST 2014 

Steve-
Not yr day!
68895 is not shown in Magnette/MGA Special Tools, but is in the TD/TF 
book - a normal long legged puller to pull the inner bearing.
when it sticks.

It is the bearing which sticks, not the center or rear spacers. Badly 
written.

"grease retaining disc & felt washer" is a reference to very early T 
series, which did not have an outer grease cap - guy's copy & paste got 
out of control!

As I said, dress the spindle down to an easy push fit for the inner 
bearing - this is an unbelievable PITA for service, and is totally 
unnecessary.  I really hated it when I was doing lots of cars. Often the 
tightness was clearly due to dings or other damage to the spindle, but I 
doubt that even 20% of hubs were tight enough to need a puller, 
including TD/TF/.MGA/Spridget, starting in 1965 for me.

FRM

On 3/7/2014 8:25 PM, Steven Trovato wrote:
> Well, on the right side, I started to attempt the hub removal.  I 
> tried the old trick of putting the brake drum on backwards, and using 
> it as a sort of slide hammer.  That didn't work.  I tried a three arm 
> puller and cranked it a bit, until it slipped off the hub.  A three 
> arm puller isn't necessarily the best thing to try to engage on a 
> square part.  I was a bit cautious and not really committed to getting 
> deeper into this today.  I am sure I can come up with a better puller 
> for this in the future.  The factory puller pulled the studs, rather 
> than trying to hook around the back.  Anyway, I would say that this 
> hub is the exception to the "does not take much" rule.  For now, I 
> cleaned up the mess I could reach.  I took new grease, and applied it 
> to the outer bearing as well as I could.  I put it back together and 
> the rest will be a project for another day.  It is definitely still on 
> the to do list, though.  As for the inner parts that I never reached, 
> the manual says that the inner ball race bearing spacer and oil seal 
> will remain on the stub axle, and must be withdrawn with the aid of a 
> separate extractor.  It's not the inner bearing, it is the spacer they 
> think will be stuck. They list special tool part no. 68895.  I have no 
> idea what that is.  I don't expect to find one, of course, but it 
> would be interesting to see what they had in mind.  I didn't try the 
> left side at all, but I did make note in the manual that the left side 
> of the car is left-hand thread.  That could be frustrating without 
> that bit of knowledge.  There is also a statement to remove the grease 
> retaining disc and felt washer.  The grease retaining disc is, I 
> guess, what I would call a metal washer.  I didn't find any felt 
> washer and I don't remember seeing one in any of the diagrams.  
> Anyway, thanks for the advice and I'll get back to this another day 
> with a bit more time and tools.
>
> -Steve T.
>
> At 05:39 PM 3/7/2014, Fletcher Millmore wrote:
>> Steve-
>> If the grease is noticeably thin (or dry and solid), then yes, 
>> replace it. It likely got that way from too much grease and too much 
>> heat. Grease is just oil in a soap base, meant to meter the oil to 
>> the parts - what you see is the base disintegrated. Probably the OE 
>> grease!
>>
>> Some hubs (random on identical cars) require a puller, and some do 
>> not. This appears to be a tolerance issue; there is NO reason that 
>> the bearings should be a "tight" fit on the spindle. It usually does 
>> not take much to pull the hub; two prybars behind the hub often do 
>> the job. Or bolt the wheel back on with the spindle nut removed, and 
>> smack it with a mallet from the back. Since a tight fit is not 
>> needed, I always clean up the spindle with emery, so that the 
>> bearings are a nice slide fit.
>>
>> If the inner bearing is stuck, it will pull the seal out of the hub 
>> as it is pulled, but normally doesn't damage the seal, which is 
>> likely dead of age anyhow.
>>
>> The inner spacer is a free fit on the spindle, no problem. Worth 
>> polishing the seal track with 400 and oil -high polished tracks eat 
>> seals. In addition to what I described below, I pack the space 
>> immediately behind the seal (bearing side) with grease; this is to 
>> provide lube to the seal, and to block water from getting to the 
>> bearing if the seal doesn't seal.
>>
>> FRM
>>
>> On 3/7/2014 5:13 PM, Steven Trovato wrote:
>>> OK, so here's my wheel bearing update. Everything looks just fine so 
>>> far, except the grease in there now is very liquid.  It's no 
>>> surprise at all that it is making its way onto my wheels.  If I want 
>>> to do an official bearing inspection and service, I better make sure 
>>> I have some new grease seals around. I'm going to have to use a 
>>> puller to get the hub off, I checked. I am also going to have to 
>>> remove the inner spacer and oil seal from the stub axle if the 
>>> manual is to believed.
>>> And this is supposed to require some other magic special tool.  I'm 
>>> sure there is a way to do this with readily available tools, but I 
>>> am not in there yet, so I don't know quite what will be required.  
>>> So, I can either forge ahead, or clean things up a bit and put it 
>>> together as is for now.  I agree with Fletcher about not 
>>> disassembling a known good hub, but I don't think there is any way 
>>> to keep the current nasty thin grease from leaking out without 
>>> cleaning it all out and putting some reasonable modern grease in 
>>> there.  On the other hand, if I just put it together, everything 
>>> seems functional and safe for now.
>>> Decisions, decisions.
>>>
>>> -Steve T.
>>>
>>> At 03:30 PM 3/1/2014, Fletcher Millmore wrote:
>>>> Doesn't matter who made the bearings- all ball bearings are the same.
>>>>
>>>> Too much grease is evil. It just creates heat - which melts the 
>>>> grease out, and all over the wheels, or brakes if it goes inside.
>>>>
>>>> I pack the bearing, and smear all internal surfaces - including the 
>>>> cap - with grease to prevent rust.
>>>>
>>>> Remember that modern greases are far more stable than the old 
>>>> stuff, and last more or less forever - far longer than you will.
>>>>
>>>> Once you put a hub together correctly, properly greased, it should 
>>>> easily go 24000 miles, and likely 100,000.
>>>> I never take a known good hub apart for inspection - it just wears 
>>>> out the bearing fits, and introduces dirt.
>>>> IF the car is parked under water, or the brakes hang and get really 
>>>> hot, then it makes sense to "inspect and service" the bearings.
>>>> IF the outer bearing looks a bit dry, smoosh some grease into that 
>>>> bearing. The only place that grease went is along the hub taper to 
>>>> the inner bearing.
>>>>
>>>> FRM
>>>
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>>
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