Rear wheel bearings keep going bad??!!

[Wulfthang]

[74 Thing]

[[/quote]

Do you know of any that are taller than stock? I either have to use taller ones or put a shim behind it. I think these axles are some kind of multi fit ones, made longer to fit more vehicles. Stock nuts are to short.[/quote]

This seems like the problem like many have suggested. Your assembly is loosening up. You either need the correct size axles for your set up so everything gets torqued correctly or have a set of spacers made and possibly machine the snout of the drum or rotor.

[stevebaz]

Get the tire assembly checked for run out and balance. if that cant be done swap the tires side to side and see if the problem moves to the other side.

out of control tire has allot of leverage to destroy stuff, record the tire while driving down the road maybe bad shock too.

[Wulfthang]

[dustymojave]

There is only 1 length of axle that will come close to fitting that VW rear hub. Same for VW Bug, Karman Ghia, Thing, Porsche 924, 944 and maybe 914 as well. There are no "slightly longer, or little bit shorter, or anything of the sort. Just 1 size fits them all. It's NOT a Chevy or a Buick.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Wulfthang]

[Mike E.]

Post up a couple pictures of what your assembly looks like. It would help get you to where you need to be.

[Dale M.]

Here is pic of proper sequence of parts....

Only thing that may make difference is if you have rear disks and caliper bracket is of different thickness than stock backing plate there for not clamping outer portion of roller bearing properly or you may have wrong bearing cap....

And yes axle nut should torqued to 220+ ft-lbs ...

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Wulfthang]

[Mike E.]

This is a JBugs video about the assembly of aftermarket Disc Brakes on a type 1 It may help you with your issues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKi4ItM0JLU


Post photos
A picture is worth a thousand words

[Wulfthang]

Thanks for the video. Mines the same as that. Question: Does the outer bearing need to be clamped in the pocket by the bearing cap? In other words: Should the bearing cap tighten down on the bearing?

[Mike E.]

[Dale M.]

[Dale M.]

[Wulfthang]

Ok well mine is not clamping down on the bearing. I can see clearance between the bearing end and the inside of the cap. I tried assembling it without the caliper bracket and the cap slides on further. What could be the problem? I have never seen any kind of shim or anything like that in any diagram. Did they make different caps?

[74 Thing]

Contact Empi
http://dev.empius.com/instructions/99-4410-0.pdf

It is loose like we have been saying. Either a spacer is worn and needs to be replaced or a shim is needed.

Photos would be helpful!!!!!!!!!!

[Dale M.]

Either the caliper bracket is to thick or you have wrong bearing cap, yes there is three different caps over the years...

Check part numbers on both caps, if failing side is different from side that does not go bad, there may be your issue....

Or measure thickness of bracket, it could be to thick and not letting cap actually clamp bearing...

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Wulfthang]

I was doing the final assembly work on it this morning and discovered something interesting. The trailing arm is a beefed up OEM VW arm. It has the gusset kit welded on top and bottom of the arm but also has the old school extra 1/4" plates welded on to the bearing pocket end, top, front and bottom.
Side view

Bottom view.

Because of the extra plates, the caliper bracket would not fit into place. I had to mill out the inside sides of the bracket so it would fit. Evidently, I missed a section!

If you look on the left side, just above the label on the hammer underneath it, you'll see a wear mark where it's been crunching against the trailing arm plate.

This one shows that the bracket has NOT been laying flat on the trailing arm bearing pocket housing. You can see it in the dirt pattern. The right side is fairly clean because it's been clamped down but the left side is dirty. You can see the outline of the mounting surface around the screw holes. (Sorry. No red arrows!!)

That means that the caliper bracket was not laying flat on the bearing pocket housing and that means that the bearing cap was not flat either. The bottom side was held out from the housing so only the top side of the bearing was getting clamped. That may have been causing the problem.

I milled it out a little further so now it all fits flush. The bearings were West German. Maybe between the two, my bearing problems are over.

[Dale M.]

Keeping fingers crossed....

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[stevebaz]

looks like you may have found the culprit especially with all the dirt sneaking in there.