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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Rear axle leak

Hi all,

When I bought my midget it had a really bad leak from the rear axle, into the drum brakes. Not ideal! So I changed a gasket and an O-ring in each side, which very much slowed the leak down, but it is still there. I'm not overly fussed about the leak as it seems very small (never drips on the floor) but I do quite like having brakes....

So I ordered the seal that is much further in the axle. Has anyone changed one of these and could give me a few pointers in doing such? From what I can gather on exploded drawings on moss and mgoc sites, I strip down to where I had it, with the half shaft out. Then undo 4 bolts that holds the hub on, and hit the hub out, and it should be behind there??

Any help (especially pics!) Much appreciated!

Cheers
Karl
Karl Bielby

hi Karl,

on my phone so will be brief.

wheel off,
brakes off,
drain oil,
half shaft out,
there is a big nut that holds the bearing/hub to the axle, remove.
remove hub.
remove bearing then oil seal.
rebuild. repeat on other side!

too easy :-D
Malcolm Le Chevalier

so yeah, you were half way there before. you will be fine.
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Karl.
If you have a small leak into the drum it is more likely to be a leaking gasket.

When it leaks the oil seal behind the bearing usually leaks through a small hole in the backplate and dribbles down the outside of the back plate.

With the gasket / O-ring set up check that the bearing is seated properly, the O-ring is of the correct size and form & seated properly, and you are using a gasket of the correct thickness. It may be frowned on by some but consider a smidgen of Hylomar.

Replace the drum and it should have a hole that aligns with the single cross head screw. Use the hole to access the screw to tighten.
Tighten the two drum fixing screws properly often these are damaged where many types of incorrect tools have been used on them over the years so replace if necessary and tighten with a correct fitting cross head screwdriver.

Alan
Alan Anstead

And you don't need to drain the axle oil to do this job. Just jack up the that side of the car a bit higher and the oil will drain away into the diff from the side you are working on.

Too easy! :-D


If you want to get more complicated / controversial just ask how tight you should do up the big axle nut.
Guyw

How tight? ;o)
Dave O'Neill 2

...make sure the axle breather is "breathing" while you're at it....
David Cox

take care the nearside hub nut is left hand thread. I have seen several severly damaged by not knowing this.

Mike P
^70:0:14^18:0:4^115:0:1^76:0:2^84:0:4^6:0:5

Karl... btw, (blatant plug coming, sorry)! if you are looking for some more info and good prices on rear bearings/hubs/seals/gaskets etc. give me a shout on...

Malcolmlechevalier at gmail dot com

I have been doing some work on this that I am happy to share with the BBS soon too. just getting my ideas together.

cheers
Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Apologies for my absence chaps! A bit going on recently!

Cheers for the replies! I was wondering if it could have just been the gasket leaking again.. I got the bits from the mgoc so they should be good?

I also did wonder about hylomar... seeing as the new O-ring and gasket stopped most of the leak. Also, as mentioned it is only leaking inside the drum...

Cheers guys
Karl Bielby

With the MGOC kit, was the gasket a fairly thick affair, say thicker than cereal packet card, or a super thin paper type?

Malc.
Malcolm Le Chevalier

I seem to remember it being quite thin.. I'd have liked it to be thicker.
Karl Bielby

A couple of things to watch for:

The drain hole through the backplate can get blocked, pays to check it is clear from time to time. Admittedly this happens more for us as we like gravel road rallying and grass-surfaced events, so more dust to clog things, but it can happen easily enough on tarmac-only cars - once a thin film of oil is there it's amazing just how it pickes up and sticks whatever is floating past.

Watch the wheel bearing locktab! I have had some recently give trouble and be useless. So now I use Loctite on the thread as well, taking care of course to make sure it doesn't reach the bearing.

In the case of the rear wheel bearing seal, we had persistent problems in our competition car, had everything dead true and checked, good seal etc, but LH still filled the brakes when cornering hard. More alarmingly it got on to the tyre ...
Solved by using a sealed bearing. I was two minds on this, wondered if any got past the bearing seal it would also get trapped on the wrong side of the seal, accumulate, and be a problem. After several trips round this illogic circle, I decided ti give it a go anyway ... and it worked well!


BTW While I fit them to customers' cars because that's how they were made, for our own cars I use just the o-ring, as it's a very efficient seal and the gasket reduces the pinch on it.
Paul Walbran

This thread was discussed between 25/06/2016 and 28/06/2016

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