Tightening the front wheel bearings

[BobW]

I have an issue with a front end vibration at speeds above about 60 mph. It is speed-related and feels just like an out-of-balance wheel but I've had the wheels rebalanced and nothing changed. The interesting thing is that the vibration can go away completely in a corner, suggesting the cause might not be a rotational imbalance.

My current suspicion has fallen on the wheel bearing end float. I've always adjusted this on the not-too-loose, not-too-tight model, even though I know the manual calls for a specific end float. I've read elsewhere that 5 lb-ft could be a suitable torque--does anyone have a torque figure that works?

[BDA]

To test your bearings, grab the tire at 9 and 3 o'clock and try to wiggle the tire. If you can wiggle it, they are too loose.

The way I do it is jack up the car and take the wheel off, then the dust cover on the hub. You can do that by screwing a small screw that bites into the cover. Screw it in till it pushes the cover out of the hub. Take out the cotter pin and while turning the hub, tighten the nut until you feel dragging in the bearings. Some use a beam torque wrench and tighten it to say 10 ft-lbs while turning and loosing the nut to where it stops dragging. It's the same thing really. Loosen the nut to the next cotter key hole and replace and bend the cotter key (better yet, replace the cotter key) and reassemble.

[Clifton]

I do the exact same as BDA. An easy check is swapping tires front to rear if they are the same size.

[jbcollier]

The Europas are very sensitive to wheel condition and balance.  Here's an article I was just reading this morning:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/the-hack-mechanic/the-wheel-and-tire-balancing-nightmare/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20_November_17_Newsletter_NewDD

First, by all means, check and set your wheel bearings as per the manual.  Remember too tight is just as bad, if not worse, than too loose.

Next check you rims and tires for true (side to side) and out of round (up and down).  If the rims or tires do not spin perfectly true, no amount of balancing will mask the issue.

[4129R]

To test your bearings, grab the tire at 9 and 3 o'clock and try to wiggle the tire. If you can wiggle it, they are too loose.

or a worn track rod end.

I tighten the castellated nut until the wheel stops turning freely, and slacken it 1 flat (1/6th).

[BobW]

Thanks for this advice. I usually do my wheel wiggle test with hands at 6 and 12 o'clock to take the tie rod ends mostly out of the picture. Tested there or at 3 and 9 o'clock both sides were too loose. I suspect that one way to distinguish loose wheel bearings from a dynamic wheel imbalance or a bent wheel is that the vibration can go away in a bend if the bearings are loose but will remain if there's a wheel problem.

It probably needs to be said that the brake pads should be moved off the rotor so they don't interfere with feeling the point where the bearings start to drag. I torqued the bearings to 10 lb-ft with a beam wrench while rotating the hub back and forth. Especially if the bearings have been removed from the hub this rotation while tightening helps seat the bearings. Then I backed off until the drag was nearly gone. The tie rod ends look good but when I retorqued them one side went in a turn or so.

I'm well aware of the sensitivity of these cars to wheel imbalance. S2's made up to and including mine (late 1969) were shipped with unbalanced rear brake drums. There's a factory service bulletin at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Sc92piNENFOUZmWeX-1nOKBsIihJv3AT. This wasn't so much of a problem back in the day, when wheels were balanced on the car by spinning them up with an electric drive wheel, a procedure that balanced one side of the whole drive line at a time. After wheel balancing started to be done off the car, an out-of-balance brake drum would cause vibration problems felt through the chassis. I'm ashamed at how long it took me to diagnose that on my car.

I'll be back on the road in a day or so and will let you know if I still have the vibration.

[BDA]

Please let us know how your drive goes.

I forgot to ask if you have the Brand Lotus alloy wheels. If so, I have heard that the holes in the wheels can get walloped out causing vibration. I would think the holes could be sleeved or the wheels could be converted for use with tapered lug nuts.

If you still have the vibration and your wheels are in good shape,there is something some people swear by that I frankly don’t understand. Some people fit a spacer between the wheel bearings. I believe the spacers were fitted on Spitfires and they would require some fiddling to get the correct fitting. That’s all I know about it. Maybe someone who knows more about them can chime in.

[jbcollier]

Triumphs didn’t use spacers and shims.  MGBs did though.

[Lotuswins]

Healey 3000's have that spacer also, it strengthens the stub axle, so you get less knock back on the brake disk pads on cornering.

I have struggled with the balance issue in the front of my TCS for some time, and finally bit the bullet and bought a hunter on car spin balancer off ebay.  It really works nicely and I now have a vibration free Europa.  I also had all my alloys converted to tapered lug nuts, to center the wheel.  Note that just because you now have consistent centering of the wheels via the lug nuts, the wheel balancing machines at the tire shops still use the center of the wheel to center it, which of course, is cast off center on the Lotus alloys.  When converting to tapered lug nuts, I should have had the machinist bore the centers true also. 

Oh, and on wheel bearing adjustment, I guess I get a bit anal since the looseness of the bearings affects pedal travel due to pad knockback.  So I tighten the nut as per the manual while turning the hub, insert the cotter pin, and loosen the nut until it is hard against the cotter pin.  If it is too loose, that is, if you detect more that a slight movement with the tire on when at the 12 and 6 oclock positions, I remove the nut and machine off a part of the nuts surface that hits the washer.  Then I try again, and iterate until I get the minimal looseness.   

I also found out after many track days, that the red grease will minimize bearing wear.   With the usual Hi-temp disk brake grease, the hub would get so hot the grease would cake and the bearings would always loosen up during the track day, but with the red grease this stopped all together. YMMV.

Jerry Rude
4005R

[BobW]

Much better this afternoon, with a residual flutter at 70 mph that I'm prepared to believe is wheel balance. It comes and goes. The hubs ran cool, although the right one is always a bit warmer than the left because it sits in the radiator's exhaust.

My wheels are JPC. The bolts have shoulders that pass straight through the wheel to center it, with washers that fit into a little socket machined into the face of the wheel ( photos).

I'll share my trick for removing the dust caps, which as usual took me too long to figure out. I drilled them through the centre and installed a short 1/8th inch screw from the inside. The nut on the outside gives enough purchase for vice grips to make it easy to tap off with a small mallet (photo).
 

[BDA]

Your wheels look like they have the same potential issue as the Brand Lotus wheels. Jerry Rude seems to have the inside track on the tapered nut conversion.

I had a 10-32 (or was it an 8-32) nut tacked into my dust covers. I screw a screw in the hole and tighten it and the dust cover pops off. After that, I heard a sheet metal screw worked as well.

[jbcollier]

Get some standard, tapered lug nuts.  Use to properly centre the wheel.  Secure the wheel with the two stock "nuts".  Remove the tapered lug nuts, and fit the remaining stock "nuts".

[BobW]

Get some standard, tapered lug nuts.  Use to properly centre the wheel.  Secure the wheel with the two stock "nuts".  Remove the tapered lug nuts, and fit the remaining stock "nuts".

Thanks for that suggestion. I have the original steel wheels and carry four lug nuts for the spare. I remember these nuts are tapered and they might be large enough to center. It would make the wheels easier to fit as well.