Tornado front wheel bearing origin??

Hi
I've got a grumbling front wheel bearing on my Tornado.
Does anybody know that model the uprights are from? I assume they are Granada, but have no idea of year etc.
Any help would be much appreciated!

Darren
 
Granada MK2 approx 1980 - the bearings are quite small and are under a fair bit of side loading on a 40 as they aren't centred inside the wheel/tyre, hence wearing out a bit quicker than on the original Granada. Also once they are properly installed and preload set there will be a fair bit of play in the wheel after driving 100 miles or so. This can be felt jacking the car up and holding top and bottom of the tyre like the MOT testers do. I couldn't find a fix for this as it gives you a fair bit of "Pad Knock" if you fit a big brake setup. In the end I changed the uprights to MK3 - Its not that straightforward though.
 
If you a later Tornado or the aluminium upright conversion sold by Tornado, there may be other issues. Although the manufacturers of the units rate them to carry NO MORE than 750kG, THESE HAVE BEEN SUPPLIED AND FITTED to gt40Ss , which are substantially above that weight. We have seen the steel spindles coming loose in the aluminium casting, which can cause the brake disc to run out in the caliper and make nasty noises you describe.
 

Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
Frank

What are you talking about? Please re read the post. The question was about the bearings.

Which manufacturer said our uprights should not be fitted to a car that weighs more than 750 Kgs?

If the stubs are not fitted correctly by the builder they will become loose.

Darren

We have the correct bearings in stock.

Thanks

Andy
 

Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
Paul

The correct bearing torque is to tighten to 27 ft/lbs and then slacken by 90 degrees.

This does result in an amount of play and some MOT testers have questioned this but Granadas must have been the same.

If you are concerned by the play do not slacken after tightening. It does not cause a problem.

Thanks

Andy
 
Thanks Andy but I tried that - as I said above after 100 miles or so the play will have returned. I imagine the Granada's were all like this.
With a standard "Floating" Granada caliper this isn't an issue. However by fitting large discs and calipers bolted directly to the upright the pad knock is horrendous - after a few corners on track the brake pedal is halfway to the floor for it to have any effect, which is pretty unerving.
This isn't something just on my car as a few of us have encountered this same problem. Tried fitting new bearings etc - in the end different uprights and wishbones cured it.
 

Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
Paul

The Granada front calipers are not the floating type.

It sounds like the larger calipers and discs were the problem. Fitting a residual valve would have cured it. Seen it before.

Thanks

Andy
 
Thinking about them yes I think they were fixed - 1 piston each side of the disc, its been a while since I got rid of them.
One of the guys with this same problem did try a residual brake valve - sadly the problem is still there.
I think its just the fact that any play is amplified considerably at the edge of the discs - mine are 330mm
We all came to the conclusion that although the mk2 upright is strong enough for the job that the bearings are having a pretty hard time on our cars and also the geometry isn't exactly ideal either. Moving over to the MK3 upright meant far better geometry and bearings that are 3 times the size and located closer to the tyre centre, problem solved, no pad knock whatsoever.
 
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Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
Paul

As the bearings are froma car with twice the weight I am sure the bearings are not the problem.

We have fitted larger brakes without any issues.

If you have Hispec brakes I can understand you having problems.

Reducing the scrub to 0 is not always a good idea.

Thanks

Andy
 
Andy, I'm not sure I follow your logic here???
Having tried many things to "fix" the pad knock we all experienced we finally swapped the upright out and the pad knock has gone. I'm suggesting that the play you refer to a few posts back (that the MOT inspectors have commented on) is the problem. As the disc is fixed to the hub and the caliper is fixed to the upright the "play" wether it is bearings or not is the issue. Having tried different bearings that seem to relieve the problem temporarily after a 100 miles or so it is back.
There seems to be too much force from cornering for a brake valve to have any effect - or you fit a larger one constantly pressing the pads against the disc (not ideal)
My reasons for posting on here is so that anyone who may have wasted as much time as me and a few others, trying to work out the problem may have a bit more information at their fingertips. Also it may affect how you go about upgrading the front brakes for much larger items.
The scrub is not 0 although it is less than the MK2 uprights but that is not what is being discussed here.
 

Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
Paul

If you tigthened the bearing to 27 ft/lbs and did not slacken it off the play will not come back unless the bearings are not much good.

Over the last 25 years we have fitted virtually every make of brakes you can think of and the only make that consistantly had issues was Hispec and not just pad knock.

It ranged from leaking seals on new calipers to them being full of swarf and even discs not running true in the calipers.

Changing your uprights may have cured your particular problem but I am sure it is not the answer in all cases.

Thanks

Andy
 
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