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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - wheel clearance issues

Hi,

had my mot failure today on 64 midget.

two of the 5 faults that they found were both front wheels rubbing on the brake calipers.

Basically the outer edge of the wire wheel centre was catching the front face of the caliper.

Are there different calipers for steel wheel and wire wheel cars?

I cannot see how to get more clearance at this point?

With steel wheels a wheel spacer will move the wheel outwards, but how can you achieve a similar effect with wires?

I've got different wheels on for mot retest which seem to me to clear the caliper, but these are very scruffy wheels.

Any ideas?

John


John Collins

I'd fail those wheels because they are so soddin* scruffy John

Are you running on Frontline, I didnt look in Monday?

Have you got the calipers bolted direct to the carrier or did you need to set the dust shield in place to move them out a little?

I can't quite remember the sequence for fitting these but they may make some difference

good luck for the retest

Bill

if the caliper, upright, splined hub and wheel are all original and assembled correctly, then the only thing that can vary the relative position of wheel centre and caliper (I think!) is the thickness of the inner wheel bearing. So this could be another example of 'grotty sloppy third-world repro bearing' syndrome. It sounds as if the interference is minimal in which case I would take an angle grinder to both caliper and wheel centre and do some fine shaving.
David Smith(davidDOTsmithATstonesDOTcom

If it is sub-standard wheel bearings, then the hub itself would be slightly inboard, and the disc won't be running in the centre of the caliper slot. If this is the case then a pair of washers between the caliper and the hub carrier would set it back by the required amount wouldn't it? That way, when you later replace the bearings with better quality ones, you can remove the washers and return things back as they should be
Guy Weller

Sorry answered this on the MOT thread, here was my reply

I have seen some wire wheels that just score the caliper at the back edge of the wheel hub. It is a fairly comon fault.
I believe the problem exists due to wear. The wire wheel slides onto the hub and comes up against a taper cone, that marries with the cone on the wheel itself.
Now if you imagine wear on these 2 cone surfaces it is easy to see how the wheel will push further onto the hub and thus catch the caliper.

I have not seen this occur with new wire wheels so I assume it is a wear problem and not a manufacturing issue.
Bob England

This thread was discussed on 22/05/2008

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