Club 80-90 Forums

Poppy van failed her mot last Saturday on both rear wheel bearings. I stripped of hubs and ordered replacements, meyle.
I fitted new bearings and refitted the hub only to find the new bearing has more play than the old worn out ones! The inner race of the outer rear bearing is slack in the rollers!

Has anyone else experienced this... I'm very confused. Also gutted that I couldn't order quality replacements from brickwerks as they are currently out of stock on all rear wheel bearings.

I've got a set of Meyle's sitting on the bench waiting to go in my spare hubs.
I can just slip a 0.15mm feeler guage between the roller and the inner race but a 0.20 mm won't go.
Dunno if this helps but if anyone has a good quality set they can compare this with it might.
or you could check your old ones if you have feelers to hand.

Usually it is the tester that is wrong. Do a search and you should come up with the posts concerning this problem.

I wouldnt trust Meyle products again after the problems with the clutch hydraulic cylinders i fitted, very poor quality ! Had to replace them with better grade .

As I had my drums off tonight, I pulled the hubs too and checked the outer bearing, roller to inner race clearance, I could just squeeze in a 0.1mm
feeler guage. That's better than my new Meyle ones so no point fitting them.

Cheers for the update Bob. I managed to get my feelers out today. 0.7mm between roller and race!!! On brand new bearings which were a good fit in the hub?
Good news from the supplier though, they have said they will accept them for return and refund, and send them back to meyle for inspection as well as suspending sales of these bearings pending the outcome. I'm very impressed
Meanwhile I've ordered a set of febi bearings from just kampers fingers crossed.

For the record
If there is play on one plane 12-6 but not 9-3 then that's ok and what you should expect from this type of bearing.

I would suggest the motter needs to be re-educated!

martin83 wrote:0.7mm between roller and race!!!

Sheesh, I thought mine were bad!!
Good to hear the supplier has taken it onboard though.

According to SKF tables, radial internal clearance for cylindrical roller bearings in the bore range we're looking at should be between 0.02 and 0.05mm for normal use (not high precision).
This is measured on a new bearing prior to fitting.
I'd be interested to know the clearance on the Febi bearings when they arrive if you don't mind doing the honours.


All understood Kev but I think Martin now has a different issue from the usual problem, albeit the MOT tester maybe shouldn't have failed it in the first place.

Thanks for all the responses.
The MOT tester is a good friend and works in a local 'old school' garage. They work on everything from modern motors to classic and vintage cars. He was right to fail the bearings as they where completely shot. Although I appreciate most garages these days would struggle to know what is acceptable on classic motors.
Now the good news... The febi bearing kit arrived from just kampers today, and the outer bearing is the illusive INA bearing currently unavailable from brickwerks. The measured clearance between roller and inner race was 0.07mm prior to fitting.
Both rear bearing kits are now fitted there is still a tiny amount of play vertically but I guess that's normal. So if for re-test tomorrow
Got to admit I'm looking forward see how silverbullet gets on with machining these new replacement hubs to accept better bearings.

Glad you got it sorted Martin.
Thanks for measuring clearance, it's good to know what a good new one measures.