TheSamba.com :: View topic

Wed Oct 15, 2025 10:34 am

hello all, long time no see,

I recently bought a rail buggy project on FB MP and have been making my way though everything to get it on the road eventually. So yesterday I tackled the front bearings (the setup here is a linkpin beam with OG wide five hubs, but no backing plate or any brakes up front, so just drum on spindle), I knocked the old bearings and races out, pressed in new races, and put in all new bearings on both “hubs”. Now i go to put them back on the buggy, and it slides onto the spindle, but stops as it approaches the base of the spindle. It appears that this sleeve on the spindle is blocking it? But if I pull that sleeve off and try to put the hub on, it still stops right about in the same position. This leaves me just barely enough room on the outside to get on nut on, no washers or anything included which obviously will not work. I got the bearings from mid America for 1950-1965 beetle to be sure it was for a link pin front end. But did I just buy the wrong bearings or has anyone else run into this before? I tried searching the forums before posting but couldn’t find anything quite like this so I’m really scratching my head here. I’ll try to attach the pics I took.

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Wed Oct 15, 2025 11:32 am

Looks like the inner bearing's inner race is still in place on your spindle.

For comparison: https://www.airkewld.com/product-p/111405301.htm?g...SyEALw_wcB

Wed Oct 15, 2025 12:24 pm

^^^^^^^^^ This....

Wed Oct 15, 2025 12:49 pm

Thanks for the reply, but that’s not what that is… I pulled the bearings and races all out but those sleeves were on the spindles when I pulled the hubs off. I wasn’t sure if they were something left behind from backing plates or what, but when I removed those, the hub/bearing would scoot up right to the point where the sleeve was, but still was stopped by the spindle there getting slightly larger toward the base… so since the hub stopped at that point anyways and didn’t slide all the way on, I just slid those sleeves back on so I wouldn’t lose them.

Wed Oct 15, 2025 12:53 pm

Did you mic the ID of the new inner bearing and compare it to the spindle?

Wed Oct 15, 2025 3:58 pm

You have the inner bearing race from an old roller bearing there, and you are missing the second locking spindle nut too, nothing keeping that together. Maybe your new bearings are smaller than the early style replacement ones.
Dennis

Wed Oct 15, 2025 4:13 pm

There is actually two different inner bearings for the front spindle...One goes all the way on....One doesn't...If yours does not go on you have wrong inner bearing (don't ask how I know) And you do have a extra sleeve on spindle no matter what you had on it before.... The tapered sleeve (arrow) is the inner race of a disassembled roller bearing you need to remove it and then use calipers to compare the ID of two inner bearing races....

Fri Oct 17, 2025 8:20 am

Get it figured out?