Bought it. Wheel bearing help needed

[jon gould]

Hello there. Hurrah, been and gone and bought it and it is absolutely ideal. There`s welding (surely not!!), brake pipes and a slack nearside rear wheel bearing. He`s put "bearing out of adjustment", but I can`t find any reference to any adjustment available in the book I have. Is it adjustable or did he just mean that a new bearing needs to go in ? If a new one is needed will I need it pressed in or can I just use the old oversize socket/hammer trick ? Sorry but as usual it`s urgent as he`s offered to waive the retest fee if I get it all sorted by Friday morning (I`ve suddenly taken ill and can`t see me being back at work before Friday). For any Norfolk readers, MOT man is a top chap. Edgefield Garage,Edgefield, Norfolk if you ever wanted to chuck some business his way.
Cheers
Jon

[E_T_V]

Well congratulations..

The wheel bearing cannot be adjusted at least it can't on the cars I've seen which means it needs a new one.

Unfortunatly this job can be a bit difficult as the bearing is such a tight fit. if you have acces to a hydraulic press then this makes it much easier. If you have a big enough hammer and a gas torch you might get it out but be prepared to find someone to do it for you. Aside from the pressing in and out of the bearing it is a straightforward job.

Out of all the jobs I've done on the maestro ( the montego is VERY similar) the wheel bearings are the worst. Everything else is pretty easy to work on.

[mgdavid]

no adjustment, the driveshaft nut just gets done up b---y tight. Note that there have been several changes to wheel bearing specs and fittings as early cars had problems in this area. VIN number is important when ordering...

[jon gould]

Cheers for the quick replies. I was afraid you might say that. Off to the garage then. See you.
Jon

[derek mclean]

Driveshaft nut?

When did a Montego go RWD?

The rears are dead easy. A hammer and a pin punch are all you need. Fronts are a different story!

Derek.

[E_T_V]

Oops look lie we all misread it.. yes the rear bearings are much easier to fix. (They rarely go wrong in fact)

Front bearing are a common problem so it looks like we all jumped to the wrong conclusion.

[MGTurbo]

The rear wheel bearings usually nip up quite well depending on wear but its so easy to replace them its not worth doing it, as they are too worn by this stage. Note the Passenger side rear has a left hand thread.

Gareth

[jon gould]

Thanks for all the guidance. As usual the best laid plans...
My motor factor flogged me a faulty bearing, so after the helter skelter rush to get everything done for a free retest, MOT man re-failed it anyway!! Since the bearing was new in and properly torqued, I assumed that the remaining (small) amount of play was some sort of anti overheating design feature. Ended up throwing in the towel and pulling a drum off a scrapper to at least get it done for the weekend. The partially worn bearing in the scrapper torqued straight up to a perfect fit. Bah.

[mgdavid]

Ah, sorry for confusing front with back ;-) - I see I'm too late but would have said swap the complete drum for a secondhand spare as the quickest way of getting going, so all's well that ends well...