Morris Minor Owners Club

Wil,

They are not 'regular' ball bearings, they are 'angular contact', which means that they are designed to take end thrust, particularly when they are 'pre-loaded', as they in the front wheel bearings and differential housing; the two places in a Minor where they are used.

Will be very interested to hear your views on the Midget discs when they are fitted.

Interesting that you found taper rollers to fit - are they a direct replacement - or any machining required ?
Overall I agree though - the original bearings are well able to take plenty of punishment over many years!

If you do use the taper roller bearings, install them prior to fitting the Spritget caliper. I installed a set years ago and I recall they displaced the hub outwardly, maybe 1/8 inch because the overall width of the bearing is wider than standard. I installed them trying to eliminate any slop of the wheel. It wasn't successful so I installed original style bearings. I think the problem was I didn't remove the spacer, only shortened it a bit. The bottom line, I don't think they had enough preload. The spacer really should be removed and then torque the nut like 'normal' wheel bearings.

Most taper roller bearings are fitted WITH that spacer in place - you adjust the thickness of the spacer to get the end-float required, and then the retaining nut is torqued up tight - and locked! Some cars use taper rollers and NO spacer - there the retaining nut is only done up loosely - and then locked in place with a split pin. Not a system I have any faith in!!

IslipMinor wrote:Will be very interested to hear your views on the Midget discs when they are fitted.

Wish that was happening soon. I'll do an update to the List when I finally get the car back together. Right now I'm feverishly working to finish up my shop I've been building for the past two years (almost done!). The first project after the shop is done, updating my Traveller with a 1275, disc brakes, and tubular shocks. Apologies it's not happening sooner, so bloody many honey-do's and other things that come first, don't we know.......

jaekl wrote:If you do use the taper roller bearings, install them prior to fitting the Spritget caliper.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

The spacer really should be removed and then torque the nut like 'normal' wheel bearings.

With no spacer the controlling factor is end float or free play - the nut must not be tight to create pre-load, or the bearings will be ruined very quickly. As Roy says 'the retaining nut is only done up loosely, and then locked in place with a split pin' - very common practice on non-front wheel drive cars, and the main reason why there are LH and RH threads used on the stub axle nut. The 'standard' process is to tighten the nut until there is no free play, then back it off to the nearest split pin hole, and secure it.

There are some applications where taper roller bearings are pre-loaded, for example the pinion bearings in the Minor diff, but there is a spacer between them to control the amount of pre-load, once the nut is tightened to the correct torque. There is even a test of residual turning torque on the tightened assembly to ensure that the bearings have not been overloaded.