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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - rumbling front wheel bearing

I've been noticing an odd grumbling noise coming from the passenger side recently (please no jokes about the wife...she may look in) and discovered that it probably comes from the nearside front wheel. I had trouble with this when I replaced the wheel studs last year so it's not suprising that its complaining. There is no play in the bearing, just a bit of rumbling, certainly louder than the offside which is barely audible. What's the best route to take as regards replacement. I've heard bad stories about some bearing kits. Is there a good quality replacemant part? My car is a 1971 Austin Sprite.
Steve Church

That is true, the bearing kits supplied by agents today are NOT the same spec as the bearings fitted at Abingdon factory many years ago. When you buy the present kits they will simply cause the wheel to have excessive play.

Follow this link to the MGCC midget register website and it should answer all your questions and give you the answer to a quality wheel bearing.

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/mgcc/midgetreg/Frontwheelbearings.shtml
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

If when you replaced the wheel studs you found the inner race stayed on the stub axle - that is your problem. Angle bearings which separate when removed never go back together unbruised, and in my view can rarely if ever be used again. In addition the distance piece usually needs tweaking to get the bearing feel correct - so often in the past I've replaced bearings only to find the play no better than before. This is inevitably down to the distance which needs dressing carefully to obtain the minimun of play with no drag.
f pollock

The reason why the spacer needs "tweeking" is because the spacer should be exactly the same length as the machined spacer in the hub. When it is then if the inner and outer race faces are parrallel when in correct load position the bearings will fit perfectly.
However the bearings that were specified by BMC to RHP (the supplier) were indeed parrallel when correctly mounted, (this is called face adjusted) and so fitted perfectly unfortunately the bearings available today are simple bearings and do not have this specification.

Fortunately there are replacement bearings that do have this quality and are described in the article linked above.

I find it far easier to use a correctly specified bearing than to use trial and error to machine a spacer to adjust a pair of inconsistant bearings.
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

f pollock...yes the inner race stayed on the stub axle. I did check the state of the balls and bearing surfaces and deemed them ok. However I suspected that something like this may well happen.
Robert...I shall phone those number through to a local bearing specialist and see what they come up with. I can't be having a lot of messing about machining spacers. There's only so much you can do with a Black and Decker!
Steve Church

This thread was discussed between 08/08/2009 and 10/08/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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