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MG TD TF 1500 - Wheel hub onto spindle

'54 TF with wire wheels;
I have packed wheel bearings and pressed them into the hub, along with the seal and spacer. How tight do I go on the spindle? Do I tighten the bolt just enough to put the cotter pin through?
TRH Hammond

I have been taught this.
Tighten to 5 to 10 ft-lbs.
spin wheel.
Back off nut until loose.
Finger tighten.

Jim B.
JA Benjamin

Ok thanks. I know I cranked the hub down too far, I have put a hub puller on and pulled the hub up a little. do you think I may have moved the bearing and need to pull everything off and reset it all again by using the above instructions?
TRH Hammond

"I have been taught this. Tighten to 5 to 10 ft-lbs. spin wheel. Back off nut until loose. Finger tighten."

That is conventional wisdom for tapered roller bearings used on modern cars, but I am not sure that it applies to the TD/TF wheel bearings. The TD/TF use standard (albeit larger) ball bearings with a spacer between the inner and outer bearings. As with standard bearings, the inner and outer bearing races are pressed into the hub and onto the stub axle. Neither the shop manual nor the information in the Blower's manual give a torque value for the hub nut, but I usually torque them sufficient torque to get the nearest slot in the castellated nut to align with the cotter pin hole (which is considerably more than finger tight).

" do you think I may have moved the bearing and need to pull everything off and reset it all again"

It is doubtful as the hub has an inner ridge in it to set the position of the bearing races. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

My take on tightening the hub retaining nuts on a TF with wire wheels are as follows: 80Ftlbs on the front hubs and 150 Ftlbs on the rear, or as close as practical to enable the cotter pin (split pin) through the castle nut to be fitted. My 1955 TF wire wheel hubs are set up to the above values. If using standard bearings these values are OK. The TF hub bearings are not taper rollers so reference to taper rollers on modern cars should not be considered as a guide

It is interesting to note that the Workshop a Manual does not specify torque values for the Wire Wheel hubs, possibly because Wire Wheels were a late factory option for the TF
I Massey

Jim- NO!!!!!- not on ball bearings. See David's comments. Due to the coarse threads on the spindles, you may grossly over tighten by forcing to the next cotter pin hole. If it is fully tight and the hole does not align, you should remove the nut and remove a bit of metal, using a fine file or sandpaper on a flat surface. I just did TF front brakes/new bearings, and one side aligned perfectly, the other stopped exactly between slots in the nut and required quite a bit of filing/sanding. George
George Butz

I had actually gone 60#, but the hub did not roll smoothly. Hence I backed the bolt off and pulled the hub back up some.
Thank you to all of you for the advice. I am thinking I will pull the hub off, make sure everything is still set okay, and put it back on allowing the bolt to Snug up fairly tight, but not too tight. Making sure that there is enough room for the cotter pin to fit through
TRH Hammond

I tighten to the point where it is just barely possible to move the washer under the nut with a screwdriver. I then re-check after a hundred miles and rarely have to re-adjust the nut.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

I see there is some mis-information about the tightening torque of the TD hub nut. As pointed out earlier in this thread, ball races are used and NOT tapered rollers, the latter require only a slight pre-load and a relatively loose nut. On a "T" series car the nut should not have any influence on the ball races except to hold the inner parts of the races firmly in position against the spacer and the inner washer. According to my MG-Y manual "tighten up the stub axle nuts firmly and cotter up". I think that if tightening the nut firmly causes the ball races to bind then a shim may be necessary between the spacer and the inner part of either bearings.
On a TC failure to tighten the nut snugly is often the cause of stub axle breakage. This is because the inner parts of the ball races along with the spacer essentially form a rigid thick walled tube over the stub axle and take much of the bending torque off of the relatively weak stub axle. Thus is not so critical (if at all) on a TD/F/Y since the stub axle is considerably stronger.
Hugh Pite

H.D. Pite

Here comes a link G Evans posted some weeks ago.

http://www.mg-tabc.org/library/torque.htm

see also
http://www2.mg-cars.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=mgbbs&access=&mode=archiveth&subject=8&subjectar=8&thread=201602020042449142
Bela

Strange that TRH Hammond's hub did not rotate freely at 60lbft of torque applied to the nut. I set mine at 80lbft without any problem. Where did I get my number, from an old hand who has restored many TDs and TFs over the years and had no problem with free rotation at 80lbft on the front or with 160lbft on the rears. I suggest that there is something not quite correct about Mr. Hammonds setup. My bearings and seals in my front hub and back axle are still running without any problems
I Massey

the tightness of the nut has no effect on the rotation. The preset is determined by the spacer and the internal shoulder on the hub. I believe that the spacer should be 0.001" shorter than the shoulder to give the preload. It has been known for the hub to be out of tolerance. The retaining nuts are handed to ensure that they will tighten if loaded and not loosen.
Although I press in the bearings I also tap to finalise as you can hear a different "ring" if not seated correctly.
Ray TF 2884
Ray Lee raybar2(at) tiscalidotcodotuk

Agree with above- binding would happen if bearing(s) not seated, or needs shim between spacer/bearing. George
George Butz

This thread was discussed between 10/04/2016 and 11/04/2016

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