Question about inner rear wheel bearing spacer

[Daniel1120]

Okay so long story short, no matter how hard I try I cannot get the rear wheel bearing off my 57 VW Bug. I’ve tried everything I have found online and have tried making my own DIY pullers. This is all an issue because I accidentally forgot to put my inner spacer back in before the wheel bearing and now I can’t get it out no matter what. Originally I was just changing out some gaskets and seals to stop a transmission leak and didn’t even mean for the bearing to come out in the first place but it did when I took the bracket off. So yeah I’m dumb and messed up. So that brings me to my question, what actually will happen if I just leave the inner spacer out?

[67rustavenger]

I'm not familiar with the early axle tube ends.
If the cast end of the axle tube does not allow the bearing to slide into the tube.
You can unfasten the side plate at the trans, and use a three jaw puller over the center of the axle, pulling on the cast housing to force the bearing off the axle.
It's a bitch to do, but doable.
Careful with the side plate gaskets at the trans end. You don't wanna tear them.
Otherwise you're in for a whole lot more work that you planned on.

I had to do the above, after a three day fight trying to get the rear wheel bearing off one of my axles.

EDIT: Welcome to the samba!
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[Busstom]

What will happen is, when you go to torque your brake drum back onto the axle, the load path will drive the inner race inward toward the transaxle and pull the actual axle outward toward the outer bearing, it will bind up the ball inner and damage and or destroy everything in short order. Best to keep working on getting that bearing out and put the spacer back where it belongs.

Edit, sorry, no "inner" bearing (I was thinking IRS). So, it will just pull the axle too far out of the side gear (in the transaxle) and still bind everything up big time, and may not actually torque, depending on how much thread is beyond (inside of) the snout of the drum. I suspect that's about what would happen.
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[61SNRF]

Do you have the service manual for your car? There is a good cutaway drawing in there showing what the stack up of parts looks like.
Found this one in the Gallery.....

(Desciption of inner spacer is off left upper screen but it has a line going to it.)

Understand on a swing axle the outer bearing is the only thing that locates and holds the axle in postion-nothing else. It needs everything in the picture to work as intended.

I don't think anyone here can honestly answer your question directly.
W/O that spacer the axle is going to be drawn out farther than it should and the inner bearing race will be seated against the curved surface of the axle.
With the axle pulled out the nut may run out of threads and not tighten the drum down.
The axle spade will be about 1/8" further out of the fulcrum plates, there may be interference and a knocking noise on rotation.
Who knows what else?

A bearing puller like this is what you need to get your bearing off. No better substitutes. Beg for, rent, borrow or buy one....

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An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[esde]

I have had to fix tit his mess that you are in before. 61SNRF touched on all the issues that could happen. Really what's at risk now is that the axle has pulled out too far, and the fulcrums can slip behind the axle spade. It's a giant PITA
Now that you have the curve of the axle shaft forced onto the bearing bore, you're stuck and this is what you need to do.
1. remove the drum, remove the 4 bolts, remove the seal retainer/bearing cap, and then remove the backing plate.
2. remove the 6 nuts and washers from the axle tube retainer plate at the transmission.
3. Borrow the biggest puller you can find. You're going to put the arms around the spare flange of the axle tube end, and pull the axle tube/ bearing off of the axle shaft.
4. If you're lucky, you didn't lose a fulcrum behind the axle shaft, but at that point I'd pull the snap ring and check anyway.
Good luck. SD
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