Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 12:14:04 -0500
Reply-To: "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@RELITECH.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@RELITECH.COM>
Subject: Re: Now, Front Bearing "saga"...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi Richard,
What it sounds like happened is that the bearing's inner race has fused
itself to the spindle. This happens sometimes when a bearing goes bad, and
they are a royal pain to remove after this happens. That schreeching noise
you heard while driving was when the bearing had locked up, and the inner
race was turning on the spindle. You may have to resort to force to fix
this.
First off, keep in mind that your goal will be to SAVE THE SPINDLE. The
rotor is relatively cheap ($45 or so) and easy to replace if you had to
sacrifice it.
Step 1. Go back to Sears, trade in the broken screwdriver and buy a set of
"cold chisels" and punches. Use one on the smaller chisels and a hammer to
whack between the inner and outer race in order to destroy the bearing cage.
This will allow all the tapered rollers to come out and give you some wiggle
room. You may have to dig in and repeat whacking to get all the rollers and
the now-mangled bearing cage out. After some cussing and cleaning, you
should be able to see the inner race on the spindle.
Step 2. Go find a friend. I know, hard to do when it's cold out. Have your
friend pry against the back of the inner race with your new screwdriver. Not
hard enough to bend it or break off the tip, but some pretty firm pressure.
Now you need to take the next size up chisel and hit the race from an angle.
Imagine that the inner race is a frozen bolt, and that you need to unscrew
it. If you can get it to start turning while there is pressure from the
srewdriver pushing out, then the race will unscrew itself from the spindle.
If this isn't working, use a torch (if avail) to heat the race and repeat
the above procedure. If you can heat the race, it will cause the diameter to
increase and possibly loosen its grip.
If step 2 does not work, prepare to sacrifice the rotor. Use a combination
of the biggest chisel in the set and a hacksaw to cut and fracture the cast
iron of the rotor down to the outer race (the outer race of the bearings are
pressed into the rotor). Remove the outer race. Now try heating, beating and
prying the inner race until it comes off. If it still doesn't, then take the
hacksaw and cut a diagonal slice almost through the inner race. If you could
cut a straight line across, it would be easier...but even after all that
destruction, you still don't have a good angle on it with a hacksaw. Better
yet, if you have a Dremel tool, use the small abrasive wheel and slice a
straight line across, just not all the way through the inner race. No Dremel
tool? Go open your gifts under the tree. There's *got* to be one in there,
right? :)
Remember, SAVE THE SPINDLE! One you have a nice line cut, use a medium
chisel straight down the "lay of the line" and a not-too-hard whack will
cause the inner race to split, releasing its grip on the spindle. Not pull
off the remains of the ruined rotor.
Step 3. Next step is to use some wet/dry sandpaper to recondition the
surface of the spindle where the inner race was stuck. Cut the paper into
long strips about 3/4" wide, and polish the metal smooth. Use a 100 or so
grit to start, work up to 220 and 400. Keep going until your new outer
bearing slides onto the spindle without any force.
From that point on, you are back to the "normal" steps of servicing the
bearings.
Good luck!!
TomC
tcarrington@relitech.com
http://www.relitech.com/tomc
http://volksweb.relitech.com
85 Vanagon Crew Cab
82 Westy diesel=>gas conversion
81 Checker A-11 (Taxi)
65 Notchback
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Bias [SMTP:rbias@HOTMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2001 10:58 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Now, Front Bearing "saga"...
>
> Tom and All,
> Thank you so much for the reply and the page that you obviously worked
> hard to put together. I remember my Bus front bearings "falling right out
> when you pull the hub off" but I just came from out side where (it is
> COLD!)
> the Van hub will not budge. The peened nut is off and the bearing race
> will
> not move. I even broke the tip of my Craftsman screw driver trying to pry
> it out. Any ideas? Thank you for all the replies and advice.
>
> Rich
>
>
> >From: "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@ReliTech.com>
> >To: 'Richard Bias' <rbias@HOTMAIL.COM>, Vanagon Mail
> ><vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
> >Subject: RE: Front bearings...
> >Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 01:20:28 -0500
> >
> >Hi Richard,
> >
> >I have an article on my website about replacing Vanagon front bearings.
> In
> >that, I write about using a socket to drive the new races is. The
> pictures
> >are a little dark, but you can get the general idea.
> >
> >The link is:
> >
> >http://volksweb.relitech.com/frntbrg.htm
> >
> >Have fun!!
> >
> >TomC
> >tcarrington@relitech.com
> >http://www.relitech.com/tomc
> >http://volksweb.relitech.com
> >85 Vanagon Crew Cab
> >82 Westy diesel=>gas conversion
> >81 Checker A-11 (Taxi)
> >65 Notchback
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Richard Bias [SMTP:rbias@HOTMAIL.COM]
> > > Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 6:53 PM
> > > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > > Subject: Front bearings...
> > >
> > > Good evening All,
> > > My Van was acting strange on the way home tonight. My left front
> was
> > > making noises and by the time I got near my home, it would actually
> drag
> > > the
> > > left front. I saw grease from the grease cover too. I had trouble
> with
> > > the
> > > front caliper (same side) so I looked at that first. Jacked the Van
> up,
> > > pulled the wheel, Caliper looked fine. Put the Van down, looked at
> both
> > > back wheels and pulled drums to check brakes. Then I thought, it was
> > > definitely the front... Jacked the front back up and grabbed the
> wheel
> >on
> > > the top and pulled... "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle"... I said "Oh no".
> > > Pulled
> > > the grease cap and metal shavings all over. Blew out my front
> bearings.
> > > Here comes the request for assistance... Bentley tells me I need a
> > > "copper
> > > drift" to do the front bearings. I don't have one. Do I really need
> it
> > > and
> > > could someone point me to a web page that has the front bearing
> >procedure
> > > on
> > > it? Thank you and Merry Christmas.
> > >
> > > Richard and Annemarie
> > > 85 GL "Buba"
> > >
> > > _________________________________________________________________
> > > Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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