simple and cheap Trunion bearing upgrade

[BlownMGB-V8]

For those who would like to reduce their steering effort, here is one way to do it.



The idea is not a new one. You can buy a kit to do it from several vendors for $65 which mostly goes to pay for a machined cup, handling, but probably not tax and shipping charges. The bearing itself, an AXK2035 Torrington type, costs about a dollar each from Amazon. You don't have to have the cup. It adds nothing but a means of spacing the bearing up to the size of the existing bronze thrust washer and that can be accomplished either with spacer washers or by cutting about .030" off the bronze washer in a lathe. Probably .035 to .040 would be good.

When you buy a kingpin kit it comes with a stack of spacer washers. the kingpin should be shimmed  to have  around .005" clearance but can be a little more or less. A lot of have been set up with up to .030 because that is the washer thickness but the bronze is nominally .180" so you could reasonably expect to stack several of the spacer washers to get the right height and shim as needed. I elected to trim the bronze washer simply because I have a small bench lathe that can do it.

The results are good. I have EPS which had eliminated the 'return-to-center' characteristic that MGBs are known for and this helped bring that back into operation. (Along with 6 degrees of caster).

The other bearing shown in the photo is an XC51204 which should handle a heavier load, is self centering, and would be suitable for use with a dropped trunion. I would encourage anyone making those to include this in your design.

Jim