Oh, Oh.... them's words you should not utter when talking about Minis!

Got the new parts in yesterday (gotta love the under 24 hours to your door from DHL) and installed. SOOOO MUCH BETTER!! Wheels spin as they should. Also, feel much better that I now replaced the outer CV's to do along with the new inners I installed while doing recent rebuild. Now I have no worries.

I suspect the hub damage is more likely to result from a worn or loose bearing where the hub can go off-axis. A worn bearing did in a hub on my car in that manner.

So the flange faces look Perfect. Not a groove or anything out of the norm....thank god. I tore into the left side tonight. Wheel turned much easier on that side. Came apart almost normal. The outer bearing needed only the slightest persuading to come loose. Inner slid right off.

Here's the scary part....you know the hard plastic seal thing that rest against the outer cv?? Well, it's no longer there. Well, it's there just melted all over the cv. Thank goodness I stopped and pulled it apart when I did. Who knows what esle could have happened. 

Bearings, CV's and few other bits and bobs are on order. 

thanks coop for posting all this... 

I will inspect tonight more closely.

It's the face of the flange where it pulls the bearing up tight that will be suspect.
Check that it is still flat and doesn't have a groove machined into it.

The drive flanges seem fine. They came off as they would and still had grease/anti-seize on the splines. I believe the hubs are fine as well. I was able to tap out the races without any issue. Things seemed true but I might drop them off with my machinist to have him check their roundness.

Surprisingly, the wheels still turned. I mean, man these poor bearings! The grease is so cooked its crazy!!

I would thoroughly check everything over as that is a lot of torque to run on bearings without a spacer not to mention the loads exerted when you were driving it.

You may find that the drive flange is buggered as well.

Hopefully the hubs are okay...

So yeah, I figured it out....

since my mini was totally stripped and taking up the entire gagrage since winter, and now it's mobile, I've been doing some serious spring cleaning. Be it a bit late. While trying to sort through boxes and parts I came across two front wheel bearing spacers...you know the ones that go between the damn bearings!!!!! at first I thought these were just the old ones but I had a bad feeling so off came the drives side hub. Easier said! The bearings were/are frozen to the cv shaft. Had to beat the hell out of it to get the outer bearing off...and you should see these poor bearings. I've never seen some so bad. Then again't I usually assemble things correctly. Actually, I think the smell is worse. Burned grease is not a fragrance I'm a fan of.

i'll post pix tomorrow. I'm thinking I need to replace the outer cv now due to bearings freezing to them. 

These hubs havenbeen on the car since new and I never had a problem before so maybe it's the bearings. How do you know for sure though? 

I drove the car for a fee miles today and then felt the forward portion of the hub, in the middle of the hub and it was hot to the touch. took a sec or two but I then had to remove my finger. Can't say that I have ever tried this before so no idea how hot the hubs usually get. The brakes, again were only just warm. 

As I haven't really gotten down there yet to fully investigte, I am thinking bearings as well. When I torqued to spec, they spun but not totally freely. They were attched to the axle and axle to trans so I get that there would be drag. not havino done mini bearing in a long time, I'd say they were too tight. 

The races were pressed in and seated and I packed the bearings by hand, throughly. I'm going to have to jack the car up and really have a look. 

I will say that just about every road is bumpy and not smooth in New Jersey:-) actually not true but even the roads that feel like glass in other cars feels bumpy and uneven in my mini...and that's with new road/rally cones and gaz shocks set on full soft. Nature of the beast I guess

The tapered wheelbearings on a mini hub setup are the same torque as the ball bearings.

If I am incorrect, I've been doing it wrong for 15+ years.

In this application taper wheel bearings should not have much if any preload although they might live with a little, they will work fine even slightly loose. If they are tight the hub will heat up and expand more than the spacer making them even tighter creating even more heat. The nut needs to be torqued to spec if that makes the bearings tight either add a shim to the spacer between the bearings or try another set of bearings. Make sure the races are seated fully with nothing stuck behind them.

Jeff

66coop, can you make sure that it is the balljoint that you touched? and hot ? and not the bearing or whatever, because in my entire lifetime i have never heard of a balljoint that gets hot, not even warm, mygad! 

its really impossible to imagine.  

Yes i should have said under normal driving conditions.

It could if it was bone-dry and he was driving on less than smooth roads, but I too lean toward the wheel bearings.