rear wheel bearing spin art

[vwlovr]

so after a long, 6 hour+ trail ride in moab yesterday i got back onto pavement and picked up speed. suddenly i got a weird noise and at first thought i had a flat, pulled over to find wheel bearing grease on my wheel. after some jiggling i determined it wasn't too loose and had this friend in a jeep follow me down the road to see if the wheel looked wonky but after the first stop the van drove fine, i babied it on the 35 mile ride back to my RV, but i got it up to 50mph with no wobbling or noises and only a little more grease spin art.

so. obviously a seal at least has gone out. if it's just the seal, how hard it is to remove the old seal and install a new one? are any special tools required (not including the fun of removing the axle nut, i know what i'm in for with that already and have the tools for it)?

the van is our only means of getting around town and the RV campground won't be thrilled with my van on jackstands for several days so i can't really open it up first to see what i need. so i'm going to get the full bearing kit just in case. shipping to moab is not terribly fast and i need to fix this in a week, so i'd rather have all parts on hand if needed. worst case they can go in the van for the day i really need them.

plus i err on the side of just replacing them because i flat tow my van behind my RV and if they freaked out while towing i would have no idea something was wrong.

am i over paranoid? is this just a failed seal maybe? the bearings are about 3 years old, so not too old, i would expect them to last longer. thoughts?

[levi]

It's possible that the rear is loose, and tightening up to the 360# will take care of it.
Should be enough to get you back home where you can rebuild it anyway.

I drove for several months on a bad rear wheel bearing, and maybe several thousand miles.

btw, here's a very detailed step by step of the rebuild process:

http://www.vanagonauts.com/%5B42.5%5DRear-Wheel-Bearings163.htm
_________________
One of these days I'm gonna settle down,
but till I do I won't be hangin round.
Going down that long lonesome highway,
gonna see life my way

https://youtu.be/cSrL0BXsO40

[IdahoDoug]

What year? What model?
_________________
1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[ragnarhairybreeks]

the seal(s) is/are easy to get out, once you have the bearing housing out
I suppose you could get the outer one replaced with the housing in place on the trailing arm.
I used a prybar to pry the buggers out, they weren't leaking but sure were stiff and hard. I have some pic etc here

http://shufti.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/vanagon-rear-wheel-bearing-replacement/


alistair
_________________
'86 7 passenger syncro, converted to westy pop top, project still in progress
'82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94, now gone...
https://shufti.blog/
Old address still works...
http://shufti.wordpress.com

[syncrodoka]

I have a few spare rear bearing housings here, I can ship one out to you if you want- let me know. Having a spare housing all built up and ready to go makes the whole process faster.
At minimum the bearings need to be repacked and new seals installed- I would assume that a bearing has gone wonky on you as well from the noise. The seals are pretty easy to R&R but removing the axle nut, all of the brakes and the carrier are a bigger PITA.
Good luck

[syncrodoka]

[vwlovr]

[IdahoDoug]

Ah, got it. I've not done the wheel bearings yet but read this section in the bentley. For some reason the whole "spacer" part made it seem a pain in the butt. Is it pretty straightforward once you get that daunting 350 lb-ft bolt off?

I'm used to bearings I can have in my hand 6 minutes into the job on the Cruisers and my trailers.

DougM
_________________
1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[syncrodoka]

[syncrodoka]

[Syncrozilla]

Look over the housing carefully when it's out. Seen lots of them where the bearing seat is ovaled out or oversize. I now carry a complete housing as well.
_________________
Please do not message me on TheSamba. Use my email, [email protected]

[vwlovr]

thx for the heads up zilla, i will check it out. there is one dude in moab with a bunch of stretch vanagons he uses for a shuttle service and he has a little private junkyard stash. so if it looks wonked out maybe i can get one from him.