16 replies to this topic

[Gr4h4m]

I guess the other thing is do people "pack" the bearing with grease, rather than smearing some on? I find it takes some considerable time to grease them up.

[PACINO]

Complete and utter guff, almost all incorrect, and dangerous. ALL Mini rear hubs are designed to be torqued up fully, with either a spacer, specifically matched to the bearing pair with which it is supplied, or a pair of matched bearings with extended inner races, which achieve the same thing with no spacer, and again must be used as a pair. READ THE MANUAL! There have been far too many instances on this forum of defective and counterfeit bearings being supplied which lock up before the nut is torqued up. Once the bearing has been overloaded in that way, it is scrap anyway.
 
If the Mini hub is used without the nut being fully torqued up, the bearing retention and locking by the split pin only is insufficient. Adjustable taper roller bearings certainly exist, for instance on the front wheels of most older RWD cars, however they differ substantially in the design of the washer, with at the very least a groove in the shaft and an anti-rotation lug in the bore of the washer, so that the split pin is never exposed to frictional torque from the bearing.
 
If Mini hubs are used, correct way round, left hand thread on left hand wheel, there is a very real risk of split pin fracture, followed by the nut winding itself up tight, followed by rapid overheating and failure of the stub axle. Wrong way round, the nut will come off, followed by the wheel.
 
Not only that, but putting Nyloks on top of the wheel nuts is extremely bad practice. Do you know, or think that you know, which threads will actually be carrying the load, and what the likely consequences will be? No, I thought not....
 
It is just plain illegal and dangerous to use a wheel and hub combination beyond its DESIGNED load capability.
 
And, almost every bearing failure seen on this forum has been caused by incorrect fitting, bogus or defective parts, kerbing, or just plain old high mileage wearout. I doubt that many have been caused by energetic driving, as the rear wheel bearings are generally robust, or were until the dangerous Chinese trash flooded the market. Over 200k miles is possible on a standard set of rear hubs.
 
The wheel studs are almost always 8.8, and you are extremely unlikely to find one that is 4.4, except again a bogus Chinese part, where 4.4 probably equates to a genuine 2.2, something like cheese. There is not much point in using 10.9, as they are less ductile and more likely to suffer fatigue failure than 8.8, and 12.9 would be very much worse in that regard. The fatigue threshold of steel does not increase as the static tensile strength increases, in fact it tends to decrease slightly, so in conditions of high dynamic load a very high grade material is inappropriate.
 
By the way, unscrupulous cowboys frequently sell "Mini" steel wheels allegedly suitable for trailers, that are in fact golf cart wheels. sadly, I think that a few may have found their way on to real Minis. Sooner or later, someone will be killed as a result of that, just as people were killed by agricultural tyres being sold for road use a few years back.

Bravo!!