Rear wheel bearing question

[Alaskaberrys]

Hi All. Happy New Year!

After running the doka through some horrible muddy road conditions for a month of super wet weather (apparently that’s what you get when you live in a flipping rainforest...) I was hearing what I thought was CV noise - occasional ‘clacking’ in rhythm with wheel spin. All wheels had been fully submerged in mud and flowing water repeatedly over the last few weeks so made sense there might be issues - water in the grease, etc.

Dried out in the garage - cursory inspection showed CV boots looked pretty good and tight - all bands on, no cracks (replaced, re-greased 2 years and less then 1000 miles ago). But when I jacked both rear wheels off the ground to dive into it further I found each rear wheel would ‘clunk’ just a bit when I wigged then in-board/out-board horizontally - hands at 9 and 3, but hard to get movement vertically - hands at 12 and 6 (?). Wheel quite tight to hub and spacer and as far as I can discern hub is moving likewise - a mm perhaps? Drivers side more so. Unable to make it ‘clunk’ with the wheel off. I haven’t had all wheels off the ground together to rotate to see if that changes anything.

Going to crack wheel nut and inspect brakes and check bearing grease, but figured I’d query as to what might be wiggling and wether I should get some bearings coming (I have no press so would have to fab something up....)

Mark
_________________
'91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...)

[MarkWard]

Generally a wheel bearing on it's way out makes more of a "growling" sound. Sometimes, rocking the van side to side shifts the load on the bearing and the growling noise changes.

As far as the play, I don't recall a van that did not have some slight movement when you grab the tire and rock it.

CV's can run dry and make noise without the boot actually failing. You said it sounded like a CV. When were they last serviced? How much lift are you running?

I find it easier to remove the CV shafts when I tackle a rear wheel bearing assembly. It's not required, but you do have to disconnect the outboard CV at a minimum.
_________________
☮️

[Howesight]

Replacing the rear wheel bearings does not require a press. When I have had my Syncro in deep mud or sand for a while, I find that the rear brakes can be fouled by mud or sand.

An easier way to work on the rear wheel bearings, I find, is to remove the whole bearing carrier. This is also a great way to service CV joints and boots because once you remove the bearing carrier, you can pull the whole drive shaft out, using a long extension to reach the inner CV joint bolts, all without crawling under the van.
_________________
'86 Syncro Westy SVX

[Alaskaberrys]

[Alaskaberrys]

**Update**

I pulled the passenger axle hub assembly to take a look

I found the red CV-2 grease I had gooped in there just 18 months ago appeared to have water infiltration - much brown.

Trans end-

Wheel end much browner. No water dripping out but sure looked brown and wet-

With the axle out of the hub I pulled the outer wheel bearing seals and pumped as much grease through it as I could without removing the bearings. Seems I forgot to take pictures of that, but they looked pretty good by eye.

Reinstalled everything and torgued the wheel nut back on with a 2' bar and 45 years of beer drinking sitting on it (likeley a tad over torqued ).

The intermittent "clacking/clicking" noise disappeared though I still had an intermittent "pop" or grinding. There was a fair amount of dirt and sand in the passenger side brake drum and I figured the drivers side was no different. My intention was to do the drivers side the following weekend....

Road still a mess and still relying on the doka for work -

However, on the way home the following day I heard much growling, popping and general mayhem going from something. Looked in my rear view and I swore I saw the drivers rear wobbling . Pulled over, shook the wheel - seemed solid enough - no way to jack it up in this crap. Checked that the CV bolts were still there - even just looking under the VW was a wet endeavor. A friend pulled up and he looked for issue(s) while I drove forward and backward - nothing obvious visually but something was not happy in the hub. Fortunately was only a 1/4 mile from our garage.

Horrible racket limping home in 1st - wasn't sure just what I was going to be replacing, but had visions of the wheel coming off. Wheel occasionally wobbled so I figured the wheel bearing musta blew up. Fortunately it made it into the garage.... now to see what was up
_________________
'91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...)

[Sodo]

I had noisy CVs a few months after servicing.
Opened them up, found rusty water inside, lots of it.
Pretty sure it was because I had Rockford boots "un-clamped".
I have clamped them....

Stiff Rockford CV boots - clamps REQUIRED
_________________


'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

[MarkWard]

That is an odd grease pattern. It indicates the the CV has been running close to bottomed out in the outer flange. Might want to pay attention to how the boots are clamped. Ideally, the joints should run centered. Or you've got a CV shaft that is possibly too long.

I recently did rear wheel bearings for an owner. Once you have it apart as far as you did, it's not much more effort to remove the bearings, clean, inspect and repack.

Looks like a nice commute.
_________________
☮️

[Alaskaberrys]

[Alaskaberrys]

[MarkWard]

My preference would be to repack them prior to installation. I don't think the freezer is going to negatively affect the grease. I have a press, but don't remember them really needing a lot of force in or out.
_________________
☮️