Uh, 2 year zombie thread resurrection here.

To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon"

Plus 1 on that.  Just follow Haynes. 

It's almost like isn't-a is back...

Utter tripe I'm afraid - please don't do this boys & girls, it's not the way it's done on a Mini.

Jakartamini, I can acknowledge that the procedure you describe is how the front bearings are installed and adjusted on the front, non-drive, steering only wheels of an early 1990's Ford pickup truck. However, what you are advising is completely counter to what every manual has ever given for specifications and procedures for minis and probably nearly every other front wheel drive vehicle where the front wheels not only must steer the vehicle but must also propel the vehicle.

In fact, Honda civic even specifies 134 lb-ft of force on their 32mm spindle nut.

So while I think your advice is well-meaning, I think it is very dangerous to follow. 

To each his/her own, but I question your qualifications and your description of "forcing the grease out" is most suspect.

Hi all. On many forums I have seen it advised to torque the front wheel bearings to 80 ft/lbs and rear to 50 ft/lbs. This is both incorrect and dangerous. Slight differences in the manufacturing machining process of the Mini bearing hubs cannot guarantee every hub has identical dimensions. This means the standard torque method cannot apply. When fitting the Timken tapered roller bearings the official Timken installation guide should be followed. Taper roller bearings should not be pre-loaded as it forces the grease out from between the roller and the races and will lead to early failure. The correct procedure is to first pack the bearing properly first, preferably with a bearing packer cone and grease gun to ensure grease is fully and evenly distributed throughout the bearing. Setting the bearing involves torquing the hub nut to 50 ft/lbs then backing the nut off 1 full turn. Next torque the hub nut to 10 ft/lbs and then back it off 1/4 turn. Next set up a dial indicator to adjust final end play to 0.001” - 0.005”. I run mine at 0.001” - 0.002” which gives a much longer time between readjustments. Fit the split pin to the hub nut & you’re done. If the hub nut requires moving to allow the split pin to be inserted, do not tighten the hub nut to the point end play is removed. Double castellated hub nuts are available out of Japan and allow much finer adjustment. I trust this helps. 
Also a quick note on Mini ball joints. Never set them tight as they will snap and the results can be devastating. Nylon ball joints are also available out of Japan and require no shimming. 

well, thats the way american cars have been doing it since... well long before I was born. The hard part for the mini is getting the correct preload and lining up the hole for the cotter pin. I had to use a thicker washer to provide the proper preload and line up the hole. You will need to adjust things a bit with thicker/thinner washers to get it right with no spacers.

Not the right way but it works.   dan

Many thanks.

When I stripped down each hub and cleaned them up I found that I have different bearings each side. Drivers side has Timken 07087X, marked England with no spacers, but the passenger side has Timken NP548549, but one is marked England and the other marked Canada. Strange. I'm no expert, but I can't imagine the two on the passenger side are a matched set!

This is the first time I've tackled wheel bearings, so I'm nervous about selecting the right sort. I've read other forum posts which mention that the spacer helps to avoid over tightening, so if you use the non-spacer bearings then you just have to be careful when torquing down and 'feel' your way to ensure they do not bind. Can anyone advise?

The non-gen ones may need modifying to get the proper pre-load at the specified torque.
All but one of the last 10 I've fitted locked solid before the torque wrench clicked, indicating that the spacer is too thin.

Having seen what happened when one of the Chinese knock-offs catastrophically failed and locked a rear wheel (while in a contra-flow on the motorway) I would suggest you reconsider and ask yourself if saving a few dollars is worth smashing your car up.

Genuine are available for less than $69.95 and I believe our hosts have a price-promise.

Many thanks for all your replies.  Unfortunately I cannot reuse the bearings on the drivers side because when I removed the hub from the stub, the inner bearing and seal stayed on the stub and I needed to use a hub puller to get it off, ruining the bearing race in the process.  The passenger side came off OK, so I suppose I could clean and repack those ones and replace the drivers side for new. I'll go for the less expensive non-generic ones.

The only problem Ive had with the inexpensive version is fitment issues. One set I installed last week had too much preload when torqued to spec. Not too big of a deal really, either add round arbor shims to get the proper preload or just tighten the nut to a given rolling resistance. Any cotter pin alignment issues can be corrected by swapping the washer with a different thickness one. Been discussed on here before.

Either way works.         dan

If you can find Unipart GHK1548 rear kits, they are/were pretty cheap (from Minispares) and the tapered roller bearings therein are Timkens. I've not looked to see if our host carries these....

Tapered roller bearings at the rear are a bit of overkill IMHO.  Mini rear ends are very lightly loaded.

The rear bearings curently in my car came off a spare shell that was hanging out behind one of my mates sheds.  I was checking things before heading off to a hill climb and decided the rear bearings were a bit past it. So we striped a set off a "parts" car.  I think I've had something like another 25 years use out of those old bearings....

If you don't want to shell out for the Timkens you shouldn't have any trouble getting good quality ball bearings (as was originally fitted) available from non Mini specialists...

Cheers, Ian

I've encountered a few disasters with some of the el-cheapo non-gen bearings, including one which effectively exploded and destroyed the stub axle.

If they need replacing, fit the Genuine Timken ones.

Agreed, if the existing Timken bearings can be fit for reuse...repack, install, no issue. 

[Note Mini Spares (UK) sells both Timken...and the non-genuine items at a much lower price.]

We had one of the finest local restored to original Mini Cooper S get serviced with new rear wheel bearings.  One set failed within 100 miles the 1st day and the 2nd set at the end of the 1st day <200 miles.

You gets what you pays for...and if it doesn't work, you must answer the question, "Did I get what I paid for?"

If they're not bad don't replace

I think I know the answer to this one, but I am replacing my rear wheel bearings (tapered roller) and am comparing timken bearings from Mini Mania at $69.95 to cheaper sub-$20 ones at
Mini Sport USA. My car is not a racer, just a lightly used Mk1. Has anyone had
bad experinces with the cheap ones? Sorry if this has been covered before.

1964 Mk1 S replica