MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - wire wheel rear axle

Hi Guys, Ive searched the forum and cant find a definitive answer to this so here goes:

I have a wire wheeled midget rear axle on my car (this isnt on a midget and the casing has been modified so that it is held by trailing arms and panhard rod that I wouldnt like to have to recreate on another axle). I would like to increase the track of the rear axle slightly- is there any way of doing this?

What I was wondering was is it possible to use steel wheeled half shafts in a wire wheeled (narrower) rear axle case? If I could do this I could then use wire wheel hub adaptors (to keep my wires, which is the intention) and use these in conjunction with spacers to increase the track?


Many thanks


Ben

BC Maddison

Ben, the steel wheel half shafts are completely different than the wire wheel shafts and couldn't be used for what you want. You'd have to have custom half shafts made for the application. How much wider do you wnat to go? I'd suggest using a wire wheel MGB rear axle instead. If you need or want a lower gear ratio than the 3.9 you could use an early banjo type housing either MGA or MGB and you'll have a lot of ratios to choose from.
B Young

Hi Ben I do not agree Bill re the half shafts. Naturally they are different but are interchangable with each axle. However there is a problem of length.

The half shafts for a steel wheel axle are slightly longer than those in the wire wheel version and will probably cause the following issues. If they are too long they will "pinch" the diff pin in the diff when they are put in, this is what will need to be checked and I am not sure if that will be the case or not. I suppose if they did do that then perhapos simply machining a small amount of the diff splined end of the half shaft would maybe cure the problem.

I suppose for the cost of a steel wheel axle it would be worth you buying a complete unit and experimenting.
Bob Turbo Midget England

Bob, I misread Ben's post and thought he was going to use a longer disc wheel housing with wire wheel hubs. You are correct. Yes the half shafts are the same as far as internal spline and outer bearing support goes. As Bob said the disc wheel shaft would be too long though and would have to be cut down and possibly resplined to fit the side gear.
All that being said, I'm not sure that going with disc wheel half shafts and wire wheel adaptors would increase the tread width any at all.
B Young

I think also if you were to get a steel wheels axle then you could probably fit your wire wheeled halfshafts and thus this would extend the rear track.

The steel axle is slightly wider than the wire axle.

The splines at the diff end wouldpossibly be a little less engaged but then you could consider the torque you will be using. If you were to purchase new hubs for the halfshafts you could probably not press these on so far and thus get the shafts longer.
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

Ben

As I understand it you are trying to get a bit more width without changing axle housing?

Assuming you have the wheelarch clearance to do so (there is little scope for more track within the std square arches) then how about this for an approach:

In principle, shift the wire wheel hub from inside the drum to the outside of it. That would gain about 3/8 per side from my memory of drum and flange thickness. You could gain more by inserting a spacer between hub and drum.

Here's what you would need to do:

Make up a spacer the thickness of the ww hub flange (5mm?) to go between the wheel bearing hub and the brake drum, so the drum sits in the corect place relative to the shoes. You would need to seal between this and the drum properly - a groove in the plate to accept an o-ring should do it.

Fit longer studs to the wheel bearing hub. There are a variety of different lengths available, but for a no-spacer shift the steel wheel studs should do the trick.

Have special half shaft made, longer that standard by the amount you shift the hub outwards. OK, won't be cheap (though neither is a new sw halfshaft and ww adaptor hub) but in the process you could get it made from better steel and also improve the shape around the inner spline to spread stress better, so the money would be well spent for that alone.
Paul Walbran

This thread was discussed on 29/08/2011

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.