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MG MGA - Rear Axle Questions

During the last week as my car sat idle a small but visible amount of axle grease leaked from the passenger side of the rear axel. The leak was located between the brake plate and the rear end casing.

The discovery led to a couple questions:

1. should there be a gasket between the case and brake plate?

2. how much and what type of lubrication should be used for the axle?

gerard hutchinson

Hi Gerard

No there should be no gasket there, but there should be no grease in the brake drum of any sort.

You need to remove the drums and see what is happening. The most likely is that the Oil Seal has gone in the hub, casued by either age, or rust on the surface where it mates with the axle, or a loose octagonal nut holding the hub to the axle.

If you find oil in the rear drum, then the seal and the paper gasket on the hub need to be replaced (talking steel wheels here, no idea about WW setups).

Look for details on Barney. It's important to get the octagonal nut really tight afterwards, buy the specail too from your local factors for $15 (Darian brought me one last trip).

Should have SAE90 oil in the axle, about two bottles. Look on Barney again, or download the necessary sections of the workshop manual from my site http://www.clancy.ch/Workshop_Manual.html

I once had to rebuild the brakes on an old mini a friend bought - all the drums were packed with grease, made a very frightening drive home to dismantle it to find out what was wrong.


dominic clancy

Dominic,

I'm sorry but you misunderstood me. The leak is not inside the brake drum. The leak is between the connection of the brake plate and the axle case.
gerard hutchinson

That may be where the fluid was observed dripping from, but the leak will most likely be from the seal in the hub as Dominic suggested. There is virtually no way that oil can exit the axle housing in that location, aside from the remote possibility of a cracked housing.
Del Rawlins

Gerard

There is no joint at that point. The only places the substance can be coming from are either the oil seal or the paper gasket (or welsch plug if you have wire wheels).

You have to remove the drum, then you will see what you have. If it's dripping, the shoes are very likely to be covered in oil too.
dominic clancy

I did remove the drum and there was no oil on the shoes or dripping from the hub. Everything outward from the brake plate was free of any oil. I do not have wire wheels so my hub includes 4 lugs to hold the tires on -- there was no leaks from there either.

gerard hutchinson

There is a central flange on the brake backing plate and a drain slot between the brake backing plate and end of axle housing to intentionally allow leaking oil to drain there without going into the brake drum. This only means that the hub seal is leaking and needs to be replaced. If the mating surface on the axle housing is not perfectly smooth it can be repaired with Speedi-Sleeve (or Redi-Sleeve). See here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/rearaxle/ra101.htm
Barney Gaylord

Barney,

Where can I get the Speedi-Sleeve?

Should I repair both sides now instead of waiting?
gerard hutchinson

Speedi-Sleeve or Redi-Sleeve is available from any local bearing supply house (prices vary considerably). Moss also sells them now.

I have come to the conclusion that any MGA is old enough to have seal wear or corrosion on the axle housing, so it's a good idea to install Speedi-Sleeves if you are installing new hub seals. Do it now and don't worry about possibly having to replace the seals again a few weeks later. Any MGA rear axle that goes through my hands gets Speedi-Sleeves the first time it needs new hub seals.
Barney Gaylord

I have just finished putting a Speedi-Sleeve on the left side of my rear axle. There was enough scoring on the axle end to see and easily feel with a finger nail and I have been having a persistent oil drip from the hub. I drifted the sleeve in with a piece of 2 inch copper pipe. The hardest part is breaking and peeling off the flange.

For the benefit of UK owners they are available from Brammer (they were called BSL) for the grand total of £18.33 each including VAT.
Malcolm Asquith

My old axle was SO shot on one side that (20 years ago) I had to use a punch to create enough grip on the surface where the bearing sits that the bearing would grip and not just spin on the casing. It lasted 18 years before there was a stability problem with the bearing again, at which point I bought a good casing from Bob West, and switched the whole casing.

Barney's advice with the Speedisleeve is probably sound for 99% of us. I suspect that when I do the oil seals next time I shall probably follow suit - hopefully in 20 years!


dominic clancy

This thread was discussed between 03/08/2008 and 06/08/2008

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