Swing axle tube leaks

[Bugsy61]

Does anyone sell a sealed ball bearing for swing axle tubes on the outer end? Getting a little tired of rebuilding one side or the other every couple years. Getting my brakes soaked with trans oil doesn't make me very happy either.

[rugblaster]

The seal kits should last longer than that if they are being installed correctly and if the kits aren't junk. I've seen a lot of these seal kits installed wrong or otherwise poorly.
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'69 Karmy, '69 Camper, Meyers clone, '65 drag bug, 10.78 @ 128 (sold it) '51 Dodge farm truck,
'09 MB E350 '18 MB E400, '65 Plymouth Valiant convertible and a '19 Ford F250 King Ranch (nicer, but dirty, farm truck)

VWoA factory trained line tech 75 till 90 or so
ASE Master Certification
VWoA Assoc. of Quality Technicians inductee (One of 25 in the five state southwest region)
La Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin (San Angelo Chapter)
TCU ......GO FROGS!!!!!!

[esde]

Is the car slammed low? If so, when the axle tubes are angled towards the trans the outer bearings get very little lube, and then yes a sealed bearing helps.
If the car isn't lowered I would look at some other cause. Or, are you running cheap bearings?
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[andk5591]

Would suggest getting the genuine German seal kits. A littel expensive, but worth it. And I have done axle seals on my cars that have held up over 10 years and still not leaking. Take a good look at your installation procedure as well.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[rrcade]

Maybe describe the correct install procedure and any little tips
_________________
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You can only pick two of the above.

[modok]

A sealed ball bearing would not replace the need for a seal.
It would be just the same, unless you put the seal inboard of the bearing.

[rugblaster]

It's been 25 years since I did one, but it's sort of like riding a bike or screwing, once you've done it one time correctly, etc etc.....

Get a German seal kit. in the kit there will be a seal, two o-rings, two paper gaskets, large cotter pin and it seems the real kits use to have a beveled spacer and two steel shims. Start by taking the brake backing plate off and clean up everything within an inch of it's life. It has to be very clean. Going back together, you put a paper gasket on each side of the backing plate, the big o-ring goes around the bearing, the small shim goes on the axle, the small o-ring goes on top of the small shim , the spacer goes on the axle with the bevel toward the small o-ring. Put the large shim in the seal retainer and install the seal. The seal is installed with a special tool which may be hard to obtain. This is where most people screw up. The seal only goes a certain distance into the retainer. If you look inside the retainer you'll see what I mean. An exploded view of the assembly would be of help to you. There are some variances in the way the oil slinger works on different year models.... put a small amount of wheel bearing grease on the o-rings and the seal lip during assembly. Top up the gearbox with gear oil.
_________________
'69 Karmy, '69 Camper, Meyers clone, '65 drag bug, 10.78 @ 128 (sold it) '51 Dodge farm truck,
'09 MB E350 '18 MB E400, '65 Plymouth Valiant convertible and a '19 Ford F250 King Ranch (nicer, but dirty, farm truck)

VWoA factory trained line tech 75 till 90 or so
ASE Master Certification
VWoA Assoc. of Quality Technicians inductee (One of 25 in the five state southwest region)
La Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin (San Angelo Chapter)
TCU ......GO FROGS!!!!!!

[clonebug]

I found that it is really easy to damage the seal when installing the bearing cap onto the spline. It's really easy to nick it or roll a section over.
It will leak quickly if that happens.

The Hayes manual has a good picture in it of the sequence of the parts. Follow that, keep everything clean and take your time to make sure you don't damage anything installing it.
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[mcmscott]

[rugblaster]

To the OP, I would be cautious about considering technical advice from someone who obviously has no formal training and has basic spelling and grammatical challenges.
_________________
'69 Karmy, '69 Camper, Meyers clone, '65 drag bug, 10.78 @ 128 (sold it) '51 Dodge farm truck,
'09 MB E350 '18 MB E400, '65 Plymouth Valiant convertible and a '19 Ford F250 King Ranch (nicer, but dirty, farm truck)

VWoA factory trained line tech 75 till 90 or so
ASE Master Certification
VWoA Assoc. of Quality Technicians inductee (One of 25 in the five state southwest region)
La Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin (San Angelo Chapter)
TCU ......GO FROGS!!!!!!

[mcmscott]

[rrcade]

Getting that seal swapped on my 62 sure as hell couldnt have been done by a third grader
_________________
CHEAP - FAST - RELIABLE
You can only pick two of the above.

[andk5591]

There was a comment about nicking the bearing housing. Have run into plenty of those. What I do is sand it out as good as possible and if I am still uneasy, a wipe of Aviation sealer on the outside of the seal usually does it. Not always, but usually.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[surfbeetle]

My car is a 67 Bug. Swingaxle is long axle, short spline. I ran the stock drums for years then switched to type 3 drums and backing plates. I never had trouble with leaks at the bearing seal/cover. Years ago I bought CB Performance Wide Five Discs with parking brakes. Ever since I have installed those, I have had issues with it leaking constantly. In an effort to stop the leaking, last week I changed the bearings and got new spacers. One side leaked after driving about 30 miles.

Today, I plan to run to VeeParts and get new oil slingers and bearing caps to see if that's where the issue is. I even took it once to an aircooled VW shop to have them do it as I thought I was doing something wrong. The only other thing that I can think of is that the caliper brackets don't have a hole that matches up with the cap or gasket. I'm wondering if that's effective clogging up the venting and causing oil to get forced out of the seal. Any ideas?
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67 Beetle Build Thread
69 Beetle

[jpaull]

[surfbeetle]

[mcmscott]

When I use the CB kits I machine the bearing cap to the new correct demension. Solves 2 problems doing it this way, first, not always does the rotor hub fit the opening of the cap and second it alows a perfectly flat surface. Also with the CB kit I use no gaskets. Never had one leak like this and I have probably installed a hundred of them.
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There are no stupid questions, only stupid people,

68 Ghia
67 T-1
65 Notch
02 Mexican beetle
74 Thing
15 Long travel rail
07 Nomad
05 f-250

[surfbeetle]

I replaced the leaky side this weekend and found that this time, the seal must have gotten pinched during install. The inner part of the seal was chewed up and the spring was in pieces. I think I got all of the pieces out. Also, i noticed that the inside of the hub at the splines was not perfectly round and there was a slight indent on the inner face of the hub. I smoothed that and the oil slinger out as best as I could and took extra care when reassembling it. I'll see what happens this weekend when I drive it.
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69 Beetle