Morris Minor Owners Club

Just had new front wheel bearings - from Bull Motif and was quite disappointed ! they are not as wide as the original and then as soon as fitted they rumble l purchased what they class as premium bearings - when l contacted them they assure me that the original wheel bearings are no longer available - their s are the best available ! yes they are willing to replace the faulty bearings but do l want to keep fitting them "no" ! is anyone aware of this problem ? or can anyone suggest a alternative supplier ?

Ta dave

"quite disappointed" doesn't adequately describe it - surely? This is just ridiculous.... I can't believe the original bearings aren't available. .I would try MOSS Europe... Item 47. http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/Shop/ViewP ... exID=17091

Thanks BMC - Have had a look ! will give them a ring tomorrow ! awaiting a replacement hub at moment ! wheel bearing spinning in it - centre punched it temp - but want to renew bearings in second hand hub before fitting !


Thanks Dave

I've never had the slightest problem with wheel bearings..in all my years with Minors. Can't say the same for my time with Minis unfortunately!

Take your bearings to your local supplier, see phone book, and they will match them

i do have several hubs that have very good original bearings
i do have some new old stuck bearings as well but would prefer to keep hold of them at the moment

If they are "stuck" bearings you will be keeping them

yep was not a typo error

i've also had a problem obtaining a good set of front wheel bearings. I bought some from Bull Motif and they had lots of 'play', so six months later I bought some from ESM, but they had the same problem. When I phoned them they said it was normal for Minors to have some movement in the bearings. I put my Minor in for its MOT the following week and they put it down as an 'Advisory'.

There is NO 'play' in my front wheel bearings - these Companies are 'talking mince' ... What a way to treat customers - and a Safety Critical item too.... Oh dear.

The original Minor front wheel bearings are '40°Face Adjusted Angular Contact' and in the Minor application are designed to be slightly 'pre-loaded', so should not have any play at all.

The bearings normally available today are not usually face adjusted, and seem sometimes result in a small amount of play, and an MOT 'Advisory'.

The 'correct' face adjusted bearings are certainly available, but are more expensive.

The SKF part numbers for 40° face adjusted bearings are:

7205BECBP - Inner
7303BECBP - Outer

The non-face adjusted versions are:

7205B - Inner
7303B - Outer

Even fitting the face adjusted ones to my Midget disc brake hubs a year or so ago, resulted in a very small amount of play, so I reduced the length of the spacer by 0.010", and fitted shims from an MGB front hub of 0.008" to remove the play.

I do wonder if some/much of the play being experienced is more to do with wear in the hub, rather than 'poor' bearings?

Indeed it very well may be... There are also taper roller bearing sets that will fit, and that's the way I would go if I needed to renew bearings. Hopefully someone will come up with the numbers - and then it would be good if the thread could be made 'sticky' for easy future reference.

Copied this offn the forum a while ago:

1962-1969 Minor: roller bearing conversion, (Timken #s)
Seal (inner) ......................................................... 471192
Bearing Assy (inner) .......................................... 30205
Bearing Assy (outer) ..........................................30303


Can't swear to it's accuracy though.

That's what I would use.

wear in the hub

As long as the old bearing wasn't seized where would any wear occur?

General shuffling of the bearing in the hub over the years (50+??) and 100k miles or more...especially if the nut wasn't tightened enough.. ?

Now located a s/hand hub and purchased some reputable wheel bearings to fit - after all advice given have gone for SKF bearings p/no s 7205BEP and 7303 BEP checked sizes with R & M bearings l had removed all spot on ! now realise not to trust that you are buying quality spares from Morris specialist sites ! ps bearing set £37.00 simplybearings that s only £9.00 more than the inferior one s !


Thanks to all members for useful suggestions along with the comical side too ! although that's no bearing on my decision


Dave

Wear can occur for a number of reasons, bearings have been changed a number of times, bearing nut not tightened so movement will take place, and potentially wear the bores in the hub, non-face adjusted bearings fitted allowing movement/wear etc. Who knows what has happened since the car was first produced?

Although we know the complete history on our Minor, the Midget disk braked front hubs were bought s/hand in 1998 and have recently required some machining to the spacer and then shimming to give the correct bearing fitment, even with the original spec bearings.

With regard to taper roller bearings, although the bearing reference numbers quoted give the same id and od as the angular contact bearings, the bearings are wider than the originals by 1.25mm, both inner and outer. The effect will be to move the whole hub outwards by 1.25mm, which may be OK with drum brakes, but almost certainly not with discs, unless the kit has been designed to accommodate the difference. Without measuring, I do not know if the seal can move out by 1.25mm, but it probably can.

The second thing about taper roller bearings is to make sure that the spacer is still present, and this would likely need shortening by 0.010"/0.020" and the clamping controlled with shims - in exactly the same way as the MGB does.

Leaving the spacer out will weaken the hub assembly - whether this would be a problem is another matter. BMC designed the hub with the clamped bearing inner races to add strength to the overall assembly, and I would not want to run without this in place. Some of the disc brake conversions with taper roller bearings leave out the spacer, but it's not for me.

I agree! My TR7 has the 'no spacer' taper rollers (same as Marina) and while it's handy to be able to adjust them -I was brought up with proper taper rollers on Minis - and I do prefer that system.

I had no end of trouble with front wheel bearings (mine has the MM style combined hub/brake drums). After going through three sets of supposedly correct bearings from ESM I went out and bought SKF sealed bearings from a bearing specialist. Not only are they far less messy and will not require re packing they are lovely and quiet and so far several thousand miles trouble free.