Vintage Minor Register

Agreed, Trevor, and the cost is minimal.

I also run the back axle with much less oil in it, so it had less tendency to migrate to the hubs. Modern oils are far superior to the old stuff (or so I have heard - I have no empirical evidence), so less is needed.

As a testament to Morris engineering, when I rebuilt my Semi-Sports, I ran it in for about 300 miles in Michigan before shipping it to the UK for the 2007 Milton Abbey rally. I drove it from Southampton docks to Milton Abbas and used it for the rally. It was then driven to John Nagle's house in Reading and eventually was sold, probably after about 600 miles. The new owner reported that the gearbox was noisy, investigated and found it to be dry! What? Where did the oil go? Sump plug in place, etc.

I kept a meticulous restoration diary, which I checked to see when I filled the box....

No entry! The box had been bone dry for decades!

Just to note that it didn't occur to me that the ring nut might not pull the bearing into place. It seated down very solidly as I tightened it up so I did not try on the brake drum, but a good tip in future.
I too have opted for belt and braces; sealed bearing, axle scroll seal, a lip seal in place of the felt washer and good flange sealing. Although I must check the oil fill in the back axle. There was no trace of free oil in the axle tube so I assume it is not overfull, but perhaps like your gearbox, it's running empty - I hope not!

As for brake shims, yes they are there, but the whole issue of brakes will wait for another day and another thread.
The rear cables run over the axle to upward facing brake levers and therefore tend to lift out of the cable guides on the chassis cross-members so this needs to be fixed. I have already explained elsewhere some of the issues with the front Bowden arrangement. However, all this must wait until after Christmas and will probably be the first job for 2014.

So, thanks for the help, advice and support from you all whilst I undertook this work as a first timer.
Not to lose sight of the reason for it all, I can now report that with the new bearing in place the wheel no longer wobbles in all the wrong directions!

Postscript.
I checked the back axle and gear box oil levels yesterday and both are fine. Level is just to the bottom of the filler thread on both.
So no oil in the axle must mean that the nitrile lip seals were doing their job and with the axle scrolls I expect even more security.
As far as the gearbox is concerned, the engineering is not being abused by running oil-less!
Martin

Hi I was trading through the Forum. I have just replaced the 'Sealed Bearings on all wheels on my 1929 Minor that I first fitted in 1971! I decided that 'sealed for life' takes on a new meaning at my age but reckoned that the lubricant would have aged. Frankly bearings are cheap as chips for the duty expected of them.

When I took off the old bearings and removed the seals the grease had gone black. I also found that when I fitted the recommended felt seals on the front wheel outer bearings the seals had been torn and leaked grease.

Thus if you are fitting Sealed Bearings make sure there are no 'Original Felt Washers' rubbing against the bearing's sealed surface, actually it will play no role nor benefit.

hmmm I am just about to start rebuilding a rear axle for this 1929 cammy Minor I am restoring. looking inside the axle housing from the differential end, it seems as though there is a steel plate (which is loose)rivetted to the inside of axle tube.
I am assuming this was for a leather???? washer (which has long since disintegrated) possible to reduce oil from diff escaping down axle shaft to hub. Has anyone else experienced this? One of the axles has a groove worn into it at the same place this " seal" would have been.
So was it leather, has anyone a picture of what was there or any ideas how to replace it.
Thanks Bruce

Hi Bruce,

Yes, there was a leather washer, exactly as you describe, which is supposed to restrict the amount of oil entering the axle.

I'm just ordering some axle seals, for the hub ends, from Ian Harris for my Maddox. I don't believe these were fitted at Cowley but were an after-market mod. They were originally cork, but in more recent years have been made in bronze, PTFE and PTFE-lined cork. I'm not sure what variety Ian has in stock, but will know soon. I have also heard of people fitting two of the seals each side, with a small gap between them, and then drilling a hole from underneath, between the seals, so that any oi that gets past the first (inboard) seal, drains to the road.

Is it M11171 that you are now restoring?

Back in 1971 I fitted the helical cork in the Half-Shaft housing along with a sealed bearing but then followed the original Morris Hand Book by the late Harry Edwards (that John Nagle updated). In 2016 I decided to replace all the wheel bearings as I reckoned the 'sealed for life' bearings had done their job despite only having done under 8,000 miles (the old grease had turned black). These Wheel Bearings are relatively 'cheap as chips' replacing with new and new grease seemed good practice to me. On removing the 'old' bearings I discovered that the Felt Washers that rubbed against the bearing had intact damaged the bearing's 'sealing cover plates', hence no longer 'sealed'. Thus when fitting the new sealed bearings I did not fit the felt washers as they are now superfluous. When jacked up and spinning the wheels, the old felt washers retarded the spin. Without the felt washers I was able to ensure the wheel spin easily and also help fine tune the brake drum contact. I have never had any Diff Oil leaking out to the rear wheels to the brake shoes. My car runs better than ever.

Hi Peter
I believe there should be a thin steel washer between the felt washer and the bearing and another on the outside of the felt to keep it all in the right place. If this is refitted I see no reason why the felt would damage the seal on the bearing
Bruce

Hi Ian
We are restoring M18904 at this stage. Has all matching numbers