Morris Minor Owners Club

I think it's a wheel bearing.
Short clip of n/s wheel. Spins easily, but makes a slight grinding/scraping noise.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Cz-CRNyvdks

O/s for comparison, doesn't spin quite as easily, but silent.

https://youtube.com/shorts/c4LZgy3xvX8

If the bearing is worn,a simple pull ,and push with a hand on top of disc and one on the bottom will show up any excessive wear on the bearing It would be obvious ,there is sometimes slight play so slight movement is ok. With the weight of the car on the road any wear in the bearing ,will cause the disc to tip slightly,so if the caliper is too close to the disc,it may touch loaded but not do so with the car jacked up. Looking again at the photos there is definitely something amiss with the alignment of the calliper.

There is some slight movement/play on the n/s bearing, but none at all on the o/s.
I think I've read somewhere that roller bearing hubs should either be pre-loaded, or have no pre-load, but can't remember which. These are not original Minor hubs and bearings, they are replacement hubs for Ford discs and calipers, with Minor pcd.

There should be no play, they are tape roller bearings so to tighten:

- Loosen nut on the stub axles, after removing split pin
- Tighten, gently until you start to feel the disc having some more resistance to spinning, then back off 1/4 turn so it spins freely.
- There should be no play now, if there is, strip it all down and inspect the bearings
- If play is gone, fit a new split pin (assuming you have one!) and test drive.

The caliper is VERY close to the disc, what does it look like on the other side of the disc? Is there maybe a spacer missing from the caliper mount?

The caliper seems to have centred itself after a run. I think I may not have assembled it correctly. All is in bits now anyway, I am replacing the bearings on one side to see if that fixes the issue. Will do as suggested when reassembling.

Taper roller bearings should have play. Fit the adjusting nut and torque to 27lb ft whilst rotating the hub and disc to ensure free movement and the centralisation of the bearings. Slacken the nut back by 90 degrees which will give the required end float of 0.001" - 0.005" or 3mm at the wheel circumference. If a torque wrench is not available tighten the nut until there is drag. Then loosen the nut until the wheel spins freely and there is perceptible end float. Replace the split pin. They should not be be done up tight so as to eliminate all play. If all play is eliminated the bearings will be overstressed and could fail.

My daughters street ka has similar callipers, when one of those bound up everything got very very hot, her intitial thought was something wrong with the engine as it would only do 50 mph (with a 95hp engine!) the sliders were free it was something in the piston causing it, new callipers were pretty cheap though. (less than £100 for the pair).

Another thought is do any of the pads extend over the outside of the disc they look close in the pics, if so try adding a couple of mm taper on the outside edge of the pad.

Been a while since I posted in this topic, but I've not been sleeping!
Since the last update, I have replaced both sets of front taper bearings. Nothing seemed particularly unusual about the old ones. The carriers that sit on the hub were not replaced as they are a pita to remove, but they looked and felt good, smooth with no rough patches or obvious wear. I suppose one could be slightly ovalled, but it's impossible to tell without removing and measuring, and the bearings seem to run smoothly enough in them.
I've also removed the half shafts, and inspected both rear hub bearings. Again all seems ok. I have in the past had bearings loose in the hub, and I suspected this might have happened again, but the outer bearing is firmly in the hub and not moving within it, and likewise, the inner is firmly on the axle stub, and not moving either laterally or radially on it. There's no obvious wear in the bearings, there's a little play, but as they are single ball bearing races, this is normal. The wheel and half shafts turn smoothly, with no sign of the rhythmic noise that I get when driving. Same with the front wheels as well. There's nothing that is rubbing against the wheels either.
So I'm a bit stumped. I can't imagine it's the prop shaft or gearbox, as they rotate at 4x wheel speed, and the noise is road wheel speed related. The only thing I can think of is a slightly warped disc that is bearing on a pad-but both discs do not seem to get unusually warm, and I'd have thought I would feel a warped disc as well as hear it.

Mine had problems with brake judder when I got it, and to all intents and purposes the discs "looked" OK.
I bought a new set of discs and the problem was sorted straight away, since then I have set the discs up in the lathe and skimmed them, one was only a few thou out but it was enough to cause problems. At least I have a spare set now.

The Ford discs are cheap as chips by the way.

Phil P

I've had warped discs before, on other cars, and I felt it rather than heard it, and it's especially noticeable when braking. This issue doesn't seem to change when braking-but it's not easy to tell, as when I slow down, it gets quieter.

Is a slightly warped disc a problem? If all it does is make an irritating noise, I'm minded to ignore it, unless it becomes worse, or starts causing vibration.

These ‘carriers’ on the hub - are they not an integral part of the bearing (inner race, roller cage and outer race)?

Please expand/explain. If you have not changed all parts of the bearing, you may well have started off afresh with already worn parts.

Agree with the above - if you've not replaced the outer bearing race, then you've now got mismatched parts, some with wear and some without, and haven't replaced all of the component that you believed to be the cause of the noise...!

Do you have the alloy hubs? The earlier versions were prone to the bearing(s) spinning within the alloy housing, as one of mine did; I had to take it to a machine shop to have it re-bored and a spacer sleeve fitted, and Loctited into place.

The Ford calipers are normally (i.e., as supplied with the fitting kit) mounted with various packing washers, to make it sit centrally over the disc.

Are not the Ford callipers fully floating? So allowing the calliper to sit central to the disk at all times.
The Ford disc brake kit in the link below only has one piston so the calliper must float.
https://www.morrisminorspares.com/brake ... cd-p829475

To endorse the above - the bearing should be replaced as a complete unit - that is outer race/inner race and bearings.

oliver90owner wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 9:24 am These ‘carriers’ on the hub - are they not an integral part of the bearing (inner race, roller cage and outer race)?

Please expand/explain. If you have not changed all parts of the bearing, you may well have started off afresh with already worn parts.

By carrier, I mean that part of the bearing that sits in the hub. The bearing race and the inner ring sit in the carrier.
I have new carriers, they came with the new bearings-but the old ones are difficult to get out, you have to have the right tooling, and I don't. I've left them in place, and installed the new bearing races. The carriers do not appear worn, there is no sign of wear patterns, serrations, grooves etc. They may be slightly ovalled, but I have no way of checking that. All I can say is that both old and new bearing races run smoothly and quietly in the carriers.
If the problem persists, then I will take the hubs to a local garage, get the carriers pressed out, and the new ones fitted.

Chipper wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 11:06 am Do you have the alloy hubs? The earlier versions were prone to the bearing(s) spinning within the alloy housing, as one of mine did; I had to take it to a machine shop to have it re-bored and a spacer sleeve fitted, and Loctited into place.

The Ford calipers are normally (i.e., as supplied with the fitting kit) mounted with various packing washers, to make it sit centrally over the disc.

I have steel hubs fitted. So far as I can tell, the carriers do not move within the hub.
I don't have any packing washers, I do have spacers which fit over the hub, but if I fit those, I don't have enough thread on the studs to do the wheel nuts up properly.
The discs and hubs have been on the car for 6 years, in which time it's done around 10000 miles. This issue has only started occurring in the last 2-3 months.

The bearing outer race/carrier in most cases can be easily knocked out of the hub and does not need specialist tools or knowledge just a good punch and a hammer.
As well as knocking out the old bearing outer race - the new bearing outer race can also be knocked into the hub.

I did have a go, but the lip on the back of the carrier inside the hub is so small I just couldn't get any purchase on it. I have a bearing puller, but that won't fit properly into the hub.

There's normally two grooves on the inside of the hub behind the bearing outer race in two spots to allow you to punch it out from behind -it is easy to miss if there is a load of grease in there.

Definitely no pullers required, dubious if they would work either, to be honest.

If it hasn't got the grooves then what hub is it?

The other way to get the outer race out is to run a bead of weld around the inside of it, as it cools it will shrink and fall out (or maybe need a very light tap).

As above, the inner and outer race MUST be changed as a pair, particularly true if it is a different manufacturer.

OK, I'll have another look. There was a load of grease in there, which I didn't clear out, so I may have missed if there's a groove.

Leaving aside the bearings for a moment, just suppose it IS a warped disc-how would I check and confirm that?
I guess if I just set up a dial test indicator next to the disc, I won't get a true reading, and any play in the bearings would show up as well?