front discs and bearings renewal | MG Midget and Sprite Technical

MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - front discs and bearings renewal

My holiday project is to get the front end in order on my 1500. Wanting to avoid unecessary effort, I have a couple questions.

1) Do I need to have the discs turned? They are not glazed, and don't have visible wobble (I put a stationary screwdriver next to the disc and spun the hub. Doesn't seem to be any runout.) Is it worth pulling and taking to a machinist anyway?

2) Do I need to repack the bearings? Without the caliper on, the hub spins easily. I can hear the bearing in there, but no real grinding. However, it's been 30 years since they were touched, so I'm a little concerned.

Thanks.

--john

jf Falconer

I'd repack them and replace the seals. Discs are probably OK.

Trevor Jessie

John,
If the disks are as you say, no need to touch them other than perhaps taking a sheet of 120 sandpaper or so and roughing them up a little to break the glaze.

OTOH, if the front bearings have not been touched in 30 years, you might as well expect to buy some bushings as well as re-pack those bearings and maybe even new wishbones. Put a floor jack under the springpan and lift until the arm of the shock comes off of its bump stop. Check carefully for movement at the bottom of the kingpin indicative of wear in the fulcrum pin and the wishbone bushings. Expect to replace both. I can almost guarantee that the inner wishbone bushings are dead as well as the upper trunnion bushings. I recommend a set of polyurethane replacements. Probably need new bushings for the anti-sway bar, too.

If you are lucky, removing, cla/eaning, and re-packing the bearings will be adequate. The archives contain reams of information about how shoddy most of the replacements are. Do buy new seals, however. Readily available size at any bearing supplier.

Check your front shocks carefully as well. as long as the fluid (20 to 30wt oil works well or motorcycle shock oil in the heavier varieties) is adequate (don't overfill!} and they are not leaking and they operate smoothly through their travel, you should be fine. Otherwise go to Peter Caldwell at Worldwide Auto Parts in Madison, Wisconsin for Peterbuilt rebuilds. http://www.nosimport.com/ NFI.

It would probably be a good idea to replace the flex hoses on the brakes, too and flush the fluid. Probably been a long time?

When you are done, you will wish you had never started, but you will also be glad that you did.

David "Mr Overkill" Lieb

David Lieb

David and Trevor--

Thanks. I'll jump in right away. Shocks were okay when I checked them last year (to be honest, I was rushing along to get back to the engine). I will do the bushings. I replaced the sway bar about two years ago, so that should still be okay.

Wonder if replacing the bushings will help with the list to the left side, which is about 3/4 inches lower than the right at the front end.

In a different thread I picked up the method of removig the cap, which seems to be a matter of driving a pick or small screwdriver in the side. Hope this is right!

Thanks for the help.

--john

jf Falconer

you may find this useful with the front wheel bearings

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/mgcc/midgetreg/Frontwheelbearings.shtml