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Date:         Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:15:08 -0800
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: Rear wheel bearings - adjust or replace?
Comments: To: Shawn Wright <vwdiesels@GMAIL.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=original

Some play on the rear bearings is normal. 401K kilometers equals roughly 240,000 miles. What I find is that they seldom fail ( the rear whl. brgs ) ..........they just get a lot of miles on them...... eventually, at very high milage, or having some other reason, you do the rear wheel bearings. A quarter millioni miles is plenty !

One test .............should you happen to notice any rumbling from the rear doing turns or even circles at low speed in a big empty parking lot............ I had this recently on a westy............going in a circle to the right would make a 'rumbling bearing-like noise'.............going to the right it wasn't there. I replaced the left ( outer in a right turn ) wheel bearings and all was fine. They don't always do that though - they are what I call 'nebulous'.............they can be very tired, but not failed. Some play is defenitley normal..........with the tire on , rocking the top in and bottom outward , I'd expect 20 thousandths play.

if you think it's shoes rubbing, to test for that, you just apply the brakes lightly while driving slowly - usually that will make the sound increase, decrease, or go away........letting you know that it's brake-related. To test for front or rear, you apply the rear brakes only, using the parking brake, of course.

Scott www.turbovans,.com

----- Original Message ----- From: "Shawn Wright" <vwdiesels@GMAIL.COM> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2008 3:39 PM Subject: Rear wheel bearings - adjust or replace?

> While trying to trace a noise from the left rear wheel, I discovered some > play in the bearings. > The noise sounds more like rubbing shoes on a warped drum, and I detected > it last time I > raised the rear wheel & turned by hand, but this time it was gone. I > pulled the drum, and > found the new shoes (less than 5k kms) are barely worn in, with only a bit > of wear on the > leading edge of the shoes - could the roughness of new shoes cause a > scraping noise? > (drum is smooth, no rust). > > About the bearings: given the hassle to loosen that big nut, I assume if > there is any play in > the bearing, this means replacement time, right? I can't find any record > of them being done, > and the van has 410k kms, so it's probably time. > > > Shawn Wright > http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels > '88 Westy 1.6TD 5 speed > '85 Jetta Diesel 1.6NA > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > + To unsubscribe from the Vanagon List send an e-mail to > + listserv@gerry.vanagon.com with SIGNOFF VANAGON > + in the body of the message. > ------------------------------------------------------------

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