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Date:         Thu, 18 Sep 2014 21:28:09 -1000
Reply-To:     "SDF ( aka ;jim lahey' - Scott )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "SDF ( aka ;jim lahey' - Scott )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Organization: Cosmic Reminders
Subject:      Re: Rear bearings and grease question
Comments: To: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
In-Reply-To:  <8AC43F25-9AE2-4E56-A972-B533FDEE7F32@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I havn't noticed any comments , so I will.

for one thing....I firmly believe that 'mostly' wheel bearing grease turns into a thick liquid after running a while.. and it easily gets to bearings...unsealed ones, like used in the front and rear of 2WD vanagons.

( that 'double bearing' in the front of a syncro ..just like in a FWD Rabbit or Golf is a Double Sealed Bearing .. and they don't remove nicely either ...the inner race is usually stuck on the shaft ..havn't done one for a while, but mainly ..those bearings get ruined by dissasembly ..and are sealed units, pretty sure. )

# 2...I have so So Many CV joints and vanagon wheel bearings without much grease in them after a few years. I actually believe the grease evaporates very slowly. I put in a hefty amount of grease between the bearings in the rear of a vanagon .. and I'm sure it liquifies and flows to the bearings after running a while.

I use really good synthetic grease..often red stuff. Every rear brg job I've done ( 20 times maybe ) has been successful. I don't use bearings from you-know-where of course .

about the bearing arrangement in the rear .. odd that they do it that way .. but consider ...the stub axle is about 10 inches long ...if you're going to support a wheel with a thousand lbs on it at one end, you'd want the brgs as far apart as possible.. and yet they are only a few inches apart.. thus ..that outer roller bearing has a humongous load on it. I suspect that roller bearing can take a lot of loud compared to the inner roller bearing , and it needs to.

tapered roller bearings ( as in the front on a 2WD ) are nice ..though they need to be adjusted .. and should be checked for play ( barely any, if that, IMO ) every once in a great while. btw ..just adding grease to the outer cap in the front is a decent service act .. I say this because that's what a major car company, Renault , recommeneded for bearing service on their Le Car car... just add some grease to the cap area every 15K miles or whatever it was. that grease will liquify and flow to the brgs.

in the rear ... it appears to me that the inner bearing actually locates where the axle is .. and the alxe, along with the spacer between the bearings let's the axle float a tiny bit in the outer bearing .. or it would , if the nut wasn't toqued to 300+ ft lbs, whatever it is.

I'm amazed at how well the rear brgs hold up ...( oh, for sneaking some more grease in ....whenever i have the rear flange off, I add a little grease to the outer brg through the seal there ..betwixt seal and stub axle ) ... I've seen rear brgs with well over 150K miles on them .. I've never seen one actually fail .. the up-down play at the wheel starts getting over 1/8th inch ... and miles are super high ..so you just do them eventually.

I expect the right side to wear a bit more than the left.. in general right side suspension wears more than the left .. same for brakes some brake shops say ..

I have also seen a badly rusted Vanagon that was much more rusted on the left side than the right .. I assume from there being more salt on the road in middle of the road.

just do a good careful job ( it's not a hard job to screw up actually ) ..use very high quality parts and grease .. and put enough of it in there. I might put say ....3 or 4 golf balls worth in each rear housing ..in addition the grease I pushed into the brgs by hand.

I don't think the zerk idea will hurt .. although, I'd want to keep track of how much I put in there .. say 10 grease gun strokes per year , on each side. because there's no easy way to tell how full of grease it is in there and if you really stuffed it with grease eventually that wouldn't be good of course.

it's all good. S. On 9/16/2014 6:04 AM, Alistair Bell wrote: > In know this subject has been covered to some degree before, but beat with me. > > I have a pair of bearing housings and stub axles that I have cleaned up, painted and awaiting delivery of bearings. I though having a spare set ready to go would be nice. > > But as I was working on them, and especially when I was mounting one to an angle plate in preparation for drilling to install a zerk fitting, I started to think about the grease in the housing. I know what Bentley says, and what others on list have said about filling the space between the bearings with grease. > > But what the heck does the grease do in that space? It's it there to displace water? Surely it can't be for lubrication, how does the grease in the bearing races exchange with the grease in the middle of the housing? > > I wonder if packing that space with grease would even create heat and soften, liquefy the grease? > > And is the bearing set up a hold over from '68? Ball bearings in inner, and rollers in outer. Why not two sealed cartridge bearings? After all there is a sealed cartridge bearing in the front wheel of a syncro. > > Yeah, I know it's not really that important, the rear bearings last for a long time. But still... > > And the zerk fitting on the housing, I'm having doubts now. Pumping in grease won't re lube the bearings unless I force the grease out the seals, and I don't want to do that. > > Cheers > > Alistair >


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