Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 anybody experienced (rear) wheel bearing damage?

hey Folks

After around 200 km on the highway, going approx. 120 km/h, I noticed a very strange sound from the back of the car. It sounded like a broken radio ... with aliens talking. It went away after a few seconds ...
But later on the way up on the mountain, I had to stop completely. The M3W was undriveable. The rear wheel felt like if it was moving from left to right on the axle.

At 23:00 ... we in the middle of nothing, the vehicle was transportet to the next garage. With suspected broken rear wheel bearing.

Anybody experienced the described feeling or sound??

Pete

I had a noise from the passenger side rear of my 4/4, but only when loading it under cornering. The nut was by no means slack but it did move a little bit with the spanner and hammer, that cured it. Now I give them all a knock now and then just to be sure.

It is a M3W Comet is driving .

Pete , several people have had rear wheel bearing problems and have fitted better quality replacements . I'm sure someone will reply who knows more than me .
Hugh

Doh, what an idiot I am!

Please ignore all advice given by me in the future. It'll only confuse you.

I had a similar situation with rear end oscillation when the rear tyre blew out.
I thought at first i had been rear ended the way the back end was moving around, but nothing so exciting , the tyre had just blown.
The valve neck had somehow got severed , made sure the replacement tyre had a short neck.
Once you come to a stop its pretty obvious when the rear tyre has gone as you are sat in the cockpit looking uphill ! The backend has very little ground clearance in this situation , so extreme care is needed when maneuvering onto the flat bed to take you home.

Had the horrendous noise when a rear bearing failed, it hadn't collapsed so no wandering but once the wheel was out of then car it was really obvious that the bearing had given up, it was really, really rough. Replacement bearings (two required) are easy to fit once the wheel is out of the car and are easily available from any bearing factor.
Whether the bearing failures are down to the original bearings being low quality or poor rear wheel alignment and inadequate tightening of the spindle is a bit of a moot point.

hey Calum
Your description sounds similar to mine. So I count now with the same failure.

I dont have an official diagnosis since *comet* still needs to be transportet to the official dealer car srvice station.

But honestly I am kinda upset. If the main failure would have happend on the highway, chances of us being dead would be high.

So Morgan mounts cheap bearings?
Cheap bearings in the only one rear wheel there is?

original bearings were from Taiwan, cheap. Replaced by European quality. Shame to use such low quality

Bearings in the size and spec required for the rear wheel are cheap so any saving would be minimal by going to the cheapest available. Others have described them as cheap and nasty and the main cause of the failures. My suspicion is that inadequate tightening of the spindle is the actual cause of the failure by allowing the inner race to move along the spindle axis relative to the outer race and also allowing the spindle to move out of alignment which puts further loadings on the bearings that they aren't equipped to resist. I also suspect that Taiwanese bearing factories are very capable of producing good bearings, whether they did in this case might be another question.