Date:         Thu, 4 May 1995 12:01:41 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Serafin for Malek <serafin@ece.utexas.edu>
Subject:      Greasy Mess

VWers,

Made it trough my first experience greasing the wheel
bearing and CV joints in the rear of my '75 bus.  All-in-
all it went well but it took a looong time to complete (3
days and about 25 hours of work).

The first thing I did was collect the parts and tools:
 9.09ea CV boot kits: 12pt star bolts,grease,circlips (qt 4)
 3.45ea grease seals (4 needed)
 2.69   wheel bearing grease
 0.12ea cotter pins (2 required)
 5.49   6mm hex driver socket
10.99   snap ring pliers
24.99   0-75 ft-lb torque wrench

Removing the CV joints went well.  I marked them so I could
install them with the same orientation.  It was a real pain
to remove the circlips though.  The joints were fairly easy
to get off the axle and disassemble for thorough cleaning.
I had plenty of marked containers so I did not mix up the
parts.  Put those to the side and started on the bearings.

Man are those axle nuts on tight!!!  I got the passenger
side nut off with a pipe wrench which I turned by lifting
the handle with a floor jack.  The driver side would not
budge, just lifted the wheel off the ground.  Bought:
13.50   46mm socket
24.99   3/4 in slider bar
Used the 4ft floor jack handle as a breaker bar and after
jumping on its extreme edge it finally started turning. I
had to keep rotating the slider bar so it would bend back
straight (its a 3/4 in bar)!!!

With the axle nut off the rest of the disassembly was
straight forward until I got to the bearings themselves. My
Bently manual shows a snap ring on either end but my bus
only has a snap ring for the inner ball bearing.  The outer
roller bearing is pressed in.  I did not want to replace
the bearings so after much cleaning, squirting with solvent,
and many grease soaked rags I was able to get all the grease
out.  It only took about 2hrs per side.

Another discovery was that the wheel cylinders were leaking.
So another trip for parts:
12.00ea wheel cylinders (2)
10.75   spring kit
19.99   11mm break line wrench (set came with 3 wrenches)
15.99   circlip pliers (for CV joint assembly)

Assembly of the CV joints took place on the kitchen floor.
I started it outside but a gust of wind landed dust and grit
all over my clean CV joints.  So recleaned them and went
indoors.  Getting all the balls in the right grooves is
really a neat puzzle because they fit 2 ways.  The first one
I assembled correctly the first time.  The second one I got
wrong and spent 1/2hr trying to figure out why.  The circlip
pliers sure made installing them easy.  Put the axles in
plastic bags and back out to the bus.

The wheel bearings greased up real nice.  I used a needle
adapter on my grease gun which fit perfectly between the
rollers and behind the spacer.  Filled the cavity and had
grease oozing out the balls and rollers.

Assembly of the rest of the parts was straight forward.  I
put a good bead of rtv behind the break backing plate and
cleaned all the break parts with Brakeclean.  Also greased
pads the shoes run on and the adjusters with brake grease.
The axle nuts were tightened as much as I dared (my weight
times 4ft is a lot more than the specified 235 ft-lb).
Bled and adjusted the brakes and took it for a test drive.
The brakes were vastly better otherwise it rode the same
as before.

The next day, after putting about 30mi on, I retorqued the
axle nuts tightening them to the next spot the cotter pin
lines up in.

Total cost was: US$220 (about $95 parts, $125 tools).

Next weekend I'll do the front wheel bearings.