Thanks, Dennis. I suspect the front, and am prepared to deal with it today, but just wanted to check. The rears are mainly suspect because of the high mileage on them (as much as 355,000 if they are original).

I was going to amend my opinion on the rears anyway. I went back out and checked; they have no play in the horizontal axis but a little in the vertical axis, if I grab the top and bottom, that is.

Jim

On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 10:30 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>wrote:

> If you can affect the rumbling noise by changing direction the problem is > usually the front. The front bearings also fail much more often than the > rears. To test you need to pull the calipers to get the pads off of them. > Even then without load they sound OK but still be problem. The front > bearing > really should be inspected and re-lubed every 30K or each brake job. > > The play in the rear is normal. With the van rear very well supported you > can let the engine spin the rear wheels and using a stethoscope (or big > screw driver) on the housing a bad bearing will be evident. Once they are > making noise grease will not fix them. > > Dennis > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of > Jim Felder > Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2014 11:10 AM > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM > Subject: Tell me about rear bearings > > Of all the Vanagon things I have done, here is one I have not. On the road, > at any speed, if I turn the car to the left so as to put the force on the > right side, I hear a rum-rum-rum sound that matches the rotational speed of > the car. Suspecting races that were not fully seated on the front wheels > (like all low frequency sounds, it's hard to get a location on this by > listening) after a recent replacement, I jacked up the front and checked > the > bearings. They don't move and any noise I hear I believe is the slight drag > of the pads and on the rotors. > > I jacked up the rear and this is what I found: there is not any noticeable > wobble on eaither of the rear wheels, but I can pull them in and out with a > noticeable clunk and about 1/16 of free play, maybe a hair more. > > Does that signal replacement time, or is there more I could be doing to > check the bearings? The car doesn't make any other unusual sounds form the > drive train when going straight down the road. > > Jim > >