Changing rear wheel bearing while on the road

[tjet]

I picked up a used housing & installed new bearings, I keep it under the back seat

[kamzcab86]

[bsrad]

[E1]

Thanks.

With that news, I’m not touching them.
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[TopBud]

Dan,
Glad it all worked out. When I did mine on the road, it obviously didn't work well. I was at a camp spot and had time. I was going to go the route tjet did and carry a housing assembly all packed, but noticed I needed rear bearings and... Affordable German is doing it, along with some other work. I drove it down from Flagstaff over 2 hours. Dan and Bill are awesome. They are also sponsors of Van Alert.
I hope I won't need rear bearings for a really long time after this.
Great catching up with you. Looks like we will be heading to MN this summer mid-July.
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86 bostig SYNCRO
66 convertible Karmann Ghia

[khughes]

[TopBud]

[shagginwagon83]

[tjet]

[djkeev]

[Steve M.]

[dobryan]

You do not need a torque wrench. This is not a precision operation. It is torque to 360 ft lbs and then keep tightening until the castle nut splines line up. Do the math of your body weight on the breaker bar to get the initial set and then tighten further to line things up.
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[DanHoug]

Having seen this done, i think removing the axle nut is the smallest, easiest factor in the job. Here’s what i saw:

- remove axle nut. SnapOn impact gun took it off fine.

- tried pulling wheel hub off of splines with two pry bars. No go. Bill then removed the driveshaft and drove the stub out of the hub and splined wheel mount with an impact hammer. Serious impact power used. Maybe a puller would have worked.

- removed inner circlip. This was maybe the most time consuming aspect as his myriad of snap ring tools couldn’t grasp the snap ring, working from inside the trailing arm opening. He walked away, came back and got it out. It was a bugger due to restricted acces…

- drove the outer bearing, spacer, and inner bearing out with SnapOn impact hammer. Again, serious impact force.

- drew the new bearings in with a large front axle tool used for Rabbit bearings. The bearings were playing Whack-A-Mole until a straight on bite was achieved and they were drawn in. Outer race pressure only so you MUST have the right size adapters.

- assembly of remaining circlip, seals, hubs, etc.

I’m a pretty handy guy and there’s no way i could have done this roadside. Carry a complete bearing set or a spare hub, check your bearings for tightness before you go, and plan on garage assistance if the bearings fail is my plan.
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[E1]

Thanks for all that info, Dan!

So is this from Tjet what to carry after you lived it?

[Sodo]

[DanHoug]

Yeah, this was on a lift without any brake disassembly. It sure seemed like the way to go if the power tools are handy. Maybe replacing the complete hub is easier as a field repair. Anyone care to comment?

That thread involving TK, hub spacers, and voodoo had me freaked out to change the bearings. The OE hub spacer is super hard steel, complete with a VW part number. Bill said he’s never seen a bad one. Bill just moved the bearings together until the spacer stayed in position, put the circlip and seals in, stub, and did a final high torque with a strong impact wrench. Again, lots of experience behind that trigger but sure was simple.

With both rears properly done, this is probably a repair that parts don't need to be carried for. After i do my other side in a warm dry garage, i’m not carrying the parts for it. At least for a 100,000 miles anyway.
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[E1]

I’m not surprised the mechanic had never seen one fail. I should have never been talked into replacing them on this van, per everyone I’ve talked about it with since.

Our first van went well over 350 on the originals, and was totaled with them in. For all I know it’s still rolling down a road with them somewhere.

Thanks to you and Bill, you’ve convinced me I needn’t carry a spare.
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[khughes]

Rear axle bearings were one of the first things I did on my current van. Bought it with 95K on it, and within the first 5K of ownership, the right rear started sounding like a chainsaw. I replaced both, just for grins, and 175K later both sides are fine. Not sure why one side failed "so quickly" but...
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'86 Westy FAS GenV Turbo (Marvin)

[mtnhome]

[Sodo]

I bought new German INA/Shaeffler roller and FAG ballbearings.
Just by "feel" it seemed that my original 225k mi VW bearings were tighter than the new bearings.
I measured the slop and sure enough, the 225k mile bearings were a little tighter
so I put the 225k mile bearings back in.
With all new seals.
And put the "new" bearings back into the project pile.
See thread: Can 225k rear Wheel Bearings be better than "new"? (mine were!)

My hubs were a little loose though. I could slide the (inner) bearings in/out with my fingers.
I glued them in with Loctite 660®.
I guess we'll see if they are still glued in sometime down the road.
Now they have 235,000 miles.

I had needle-greased my rear bearings at 175,000 though,
using the 12,3,6,9 o'clock method which pushes out the old grease evenly.
So they had new grease for the last 50,000 miles.

Some feller with a 100k van could replace the grease in that manner and I bet the original bearings will last a LONG time.

Someone with a young van & pre-emptive tendencies could disassemble, clean & re-mount the (inner, ball) bearings with SKF LGAF 3E Anti-fretting agent on the contact area between the race and the bore.
LGAF 3E would prevent the erosion that 'deletes' the press-fit.
(------> trusting the experts at SKF )
I don't think there's any way to know at what point (miles) this becomes ineffective (too late). But if your bearings still have 'press-fit' there's hope.
This could be done on "new" hubs too, if you're young enough to need 250,000 future miles.
The LGAF 3E elixir is described in the link above.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb