Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 14:26:47 -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: Rear wheel over half in muddy water. Need to repack bearings
or ???
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they don't have sealed bearings.
I'm doing rear wheel bearings right now on a vanagon.
there have conventional outer grease seals, and non-sealed bearings.
that was my concern ..water in the rear bearings.
might not be a real problem , on the other hand if the r. brg's have 150K on
them already ..and water got in there ...could push the bearings over the
edge.
the outer bearing is under huge load.
it's a fairly small multi-roller bearing ..
and it's not so much the weight of that corner of the van ..it's how close
the bearing are together on the stub axle, Being only about 3 inchs or less
apart, there is a huge 'bending' force on those bearings ..
the inner larger roller bearing ...those last super well.
it's the outer smaller roller bearing, the more expensive one, that gets the
real load,
You can access that bearing a little ....by removing the flange - you're
still looking at just a stub axle sticking out of a grease seal, so can't
really see much. But if you undo CV's and push out the stub axle....
then you can add grease to the outer bearing. Lot of work. Propably OK for
now.
I just get nervous a little on a long trip if rear wheel bearings are say
150K or more miles old.
and it got traumatized a little with mud/water ..that might concern me.
brakes themselves get wet in normal use in rain ...so 'some water' in the
drum area, I would not worry about too much, but I'd sure clean mud out of
there.
scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay lefstein" <jleftbrane@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 10:06 AM
Subject: Re: Rear wheel over half in muddy water. Need to repack bearings or
???
My thoughts are the rear wheels have sealed bearings
Thank you,
Jay Lefstein.
Sent from my mobile device.
On Sep 6, 2010, at 7:20 PM, Scott Chapman <scott@MISCHKO.COM> wrote:
> I went adventuring in my 85 Westy today.
>
> Lesson learned: NEVER try to cross a sizable puddle without inspecting it
> first! We managed to get the right rear in muddy water over half way up
> the
> tire and it took over an hour to get it out again.
>
> I am wondering if I need to do anything with the brakes or wheel bearings,
> or anything else, as a result of this "abuse" :).
>
> I went to a self-serve car wash and washed wheels out thoroughly on both
> sides but haven't gone further yet.
>
> I'm in Cheyenne, Wyoming and leaving from here to LA on Thursday AM. The
> last thing I need is trouble on the trip.
>
> All advice and wisdom greatly appreciated!
>
> Scott