Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:56:37 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: (Summary) Rear wheel bearings: grease, replace or leave alone.
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fwiw,
here's what I notice about vanagon rear wheel bearings.
They seem to last nearly indefinitely.
When I do find one that's not perfect anymore ..............they are not
really that worn or shot ...........but 'you just know' it has usually over
150K on them, and it's time.
or 'sometimes' ....I can hear and feel a slight difference in bearing noise
level by swerving gently at about 35 mph, in a safe place.
If it gets quieter swerving right, that points to a right side wheel bearing
'usually.
I have heard of someone trashing their rear whl brg housing where the races
go. I can only imagine that they drove those bearings very rough and noisy,
for a few years, and thought it was just the general din of an old VW.
'usully' or commonly most of the time, right side things where more on cars
than the left, slightly.
More bumps on the edge of the road .........shocks, bearings, and sometimes
brakes even wear a tiny bit more on the right, but not always.
persoally............I'd do which ever side seemed loosest or more rough
first, then see what result that produced. Then consider doing the other
side.
you 'can' run it in the air on solid jack stands, and using a hardwood
listening stick, or similar............listen to the bearing rumble in the
bearing housing .........at maybe 25 mph. Be real careful doing this, and
on a syncro it's really, really dangerous , all that stuff spinning around -
it's scary.
2WD not so bad though.
hope this helps.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Poppie Jagersand" <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:57 AM
Subject: (Summary) Rear wheel bearings: grease, replace or leave alone.
Lets try to bring the Vanagon related information to conclusion. I'm
interpreting the various responses:
Since it's more of a chore to get to the rear wheel bearings it is common to
leave them alone until the start making noise. (Front wheel bearings are by
contrast easy to repack/replace whenever one does a front brake job and take
off the disks for resurfacing)
Maybe there is a good possibility that my wheel bearings (likely 28 years
old; I don't think PO replaced them) will last the life of the vehicle, so
why unnecessarily replace them? If they start making noise I'll most likely
be able to drive home and replace the bearings then. I found a description
on:
http://www.vanagonauts.com/[42.5]Rear-Wheel-Bearings163.htm
Do maybe most other Vanagons still drive around with their original bearings
and grease?
Cheers,
Martin (and '82 Westy 1.9TD "Poppie")
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