Triumph Repair: 1978 Triumph Spitfire, roadster factory, wheel bearings

Question
A friend of mine just inherited a 1978 Spitfire from his Grandfather.  It has 28,000 original miles on it.  He is hearing some growling noise which appears to coming from the rear end.  He asked me to help him check/replace the axle bearings.  Do you think this is a possible source of the growling and what is involved in this procedure?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Answer
Hi Denis,
Yes, it is possible that the wheel bearings are the cause. Also there are inner universal joints on each axle and universal joints in the driveshaft that can make noise and the differential itself can make noise. So it is important to put the car on a lift and run the car in gear and have someone under the car to listen for the noise and to check for any free play. Even experienced mechanics can be fooled and replace a part and find that it didn't fix the problem. So, proper diagnosis is very important.

Unfortunately, the design of the axle hub is such that it is sometimes difficult to get the hub off of the axle to replace bearing which use the axle as an inner race so this makes it necessary to replace the axle when a bearing goes bad. The suspension is called a swing axle so there is only one "U" joint on each side. If this is the cause it is a much easier repair to make.

The parts are still available for this car at several mail order supply companies. The "U" joints may be available at your local auto parts stores. Most everything else can be had form The Roadster Factory, Moss Motors and Victoria British to name a few. They are on the net and have toll free numbers.

I hope this helps,
Howard