Bearing Packing: Hand vs. Tool

I mean if anything, nitrile gloves just make it easier to clean up.

Not all greases are alike. Most SDS will recommend gloves at a minimum or will say sometjing like "generally not considered harmful if proper industrial hygene is observed" i.e.: wear gloves.
 
I'm a chemist. To me, fresh grease is in the category of "I'd rather wear gloves when handling it because it's messy", the same reason why I wear gloves for a lot of car work. Aerosol cleaners are "probably should wear gloves" and chlorinated brake cleaner(aka "the good stuff") are "definitely should wear gloves" stuff. Used motor oil is in the "definitely should wear gloves" category for toxicity and messiness.

BTW, as I said, these bearings are, I'd say on the whole, pretty darn clean. They got a kerosene wash and air dry, and I don't see any real evidence of old grease or other crud hanging around in them.
 
I've hand packed many, without gloves. 70's and 80's most people did not have boxes of gloves at home.
Bearings were cleaned in gasoline, rinsed with kerosene and hand packed.
 
AFAIK, the MGA used taper bearings also. I wonder if that was something that the sports cars got and the mass market cars got the ball bearings.
A quick check and the MGA and Spridget use balls, the MGB taper rollers...but still use a spacer. A radical move by BMC to actually change something standard across the whole range.

A little story about that - the London to Sydney rally was won by a Hillman Hunter ! But the Austin 1800 was leading when they got to Perth. They were serviced at the local BMC dealer...and every BMC mechanic knows you tighten the bearing up tight, put the splitpin in and it's all good. But they had modified the rally car to taper rollers....and no spacer. They didn't get far and then the rear wheel bearings failed.
 
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