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MG TD TF 1500 - Wire Wheel Hub Wear


I am looking to replace wire wheels as they are starting to rust but before I do I wanted to check the hub splines for wear.

If I loosen the spinner so it is snug but not tight then I get about 3-4 mm ( roughly 1/8th inch) of rotational play on the back wheels. I noticed a couple of years ago a frequent 'clunk' in first or reverse. Now I think I know what it was.

On the front I get 1-2mm and on the front driver side a little sideways play - again small.

According to articles on the MGAguru.com the rears are on the border line of 'ok'.

Before I get new wheels and put them on worn hubs I thought I'd ask your opinions. I took some close ups and though there is some wear on the hubs they don't look too bad.

What do you think ?

Dave

Passenger Side Pics Attached

D Moore

And Driver Side

D Moore

The right rear hub is the one that wears first, most others do not wear enough to need replacement. wheels do not wear as fast as the hubs, I can look up the wear limit if needed.
Len
914 420 8699
Len Fanelli

At what point on the rim do you get 3-4mm play? If it is at the rim then it is to a lot, if it is right at the hub then it may be of concern. There should be an area of the splines that do not make contact when the wheel is on the car so you can see what the splines are like without any wear.

The other causes of slack could be the spline where the hub joins the half shaft and where the half shaft enters the diff.
Max Irvine

To me the teeth look perfectly normal. Wear will make the teeth asymmetric.
Rgds Mike
Mike Fritsch

Dave, The "clunk" sound is very typical of the diff starting to wear. ...Chris
Chris Malcolm (TD29228)

Made an error with my earlier post. I meant to say that if the play is 3-4mm at the outer rim diameter then it is nothing to worry about.
Max Irvine

Dave,
With regard to the clunk when in first or reverse.

I had a similar noise for several years and it always worried me, to the extent I went the rout of buying new wheels and hubs.
The actual reason for the noise was found to be the 6 stud bolts that hold the hub to the break drum. I could never duplicate the pressure required to get this noise when looking for it with the wheels off?

These studs are $4.00 bucks each and $0.65 for the nuts and are short dome headed studs with thin nuts on the outside of the drum, held by a locking tab washer.
After many years of driving these had become just a tad loose and the splines on the stud that normally locates the stud in the drum became crushed down. Allowing the brake drum to rotate very slightly on the studs. Hence during hard acceleration in 1st and breaking or going in reverse, a clunk could be heard from the rear.
I only found the culprit when I brought new wheels and new hubs. The studs on the of side [RHD] wheel almost fell out. The new studs needed to be pressed into the drum and hub and I had a local Garage do this as I do not have a shop press. Don't try to pull them in with the nuts! The stud will just stretch and break [Don't ask me how I know]

Looking at your hubs - the splines look way better than mine before I replaced them - not bad at all. But to be fair, if you are buy new wheels - you should really fit new hubs. Might be overkill but old stuff tends to wear new faster from my experience.

Maybe just something else to look at? :)

Rod

R D Jones

I went through this problem and ended up replacing my hubs AFTER buying new wheels. My hubs looked quite similar to yours and not very worn. However, after putting on the new hubs it became very clear how worn my hubs were. The hubs and wheels wear together and a bad hub bouncing back and forth in a new wheel will begin to damage the new wheel's splines. I HIGHLY recommend replacing the hubs with the wheels.

Alex
Alex Waugh

This thread was discussed between 23/04/2014 and 24/04/2014

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