Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:34:51 -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 Axle Nut ~Man that's big!!
In-Reply-To: <064501cd6f8c$0c05be60$24113b20$@gmail.com>
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about 'checking the rear wheel bearings' ..
removing the rear axle flange and nut won't especially enable you to
check the rear wheel brgs.
They are not like front wheel bearings where you just take things apart
and they are in your hands.
More like they are pressed into the rear axle housing.
All I do to check them is check for play, mainly up-down with each rear
wheel off the ground, parking brake off.
and eighth inch up-down play at the tire/wheel is normal.
A quarter inch is 'a lot' .
Mainly the outer bearing has a lot of load on it, on a short stub axle.
It's amazing how well they do last.
If they have over 150K miles on the, and there's much play ..they're
getting due.
with flange off you can slide out the inner race for the outer bearing ..
not normally done though. You can add some grease to the outer brg too ..
not a 'real' repair though ..more of a 'tweak/psychic healing'. Barely
helps.
if you look at that smooth bearing suface with a microscope, it will
look like the surface of the moon ..
pretty rough and irregular.
if you do replace, work hard to get quality rear bearings ..
not a given at all these days.
On 7/31/2012 7:19 PM, Stuart MacMillan wrote:
> I bought the 1 13/16" socket and rented a 3/4" drive electric impact wrench.
> Piece of cake and cost $20 for the rental.
>
> Stuart
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> orin
> Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:04 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Rear Axle Nut ~Man that's big!!
>
> Hey everyone!
>
> I'm looking for advice with the rear axle nut. I can't seem to find a 46mm
> socket anywhere locally and I'd like to keep going with my work tomorrow
> (checking the rear bearings), has anyone here used a 1 and 13/16" SAE
> socket? It seems like the conversion is almost perfect. Any thoughts?
>
> Also, when it comes time to torque this beast down, what to use? I was
> looking at a 1" torque wrench in a shop but it only goes to 300 ft lbs and I
> think the target is 360 ft lbs. If anyone with experience might like to
> share a tip or two... Thanks a lot!!
>
> Orin
>
> --
>
> * My Blog <http://orinsalah.blogspot.com/>
> * My Photos <http://www.flickr.com/photos/orinsalah/>
>