Rear wheel bearing play

[71Westy]

Folks,

Just redid my back brakes this weekend. But... there is play in one of the rear wheel bearings. It does not rock though - no perceptible movement when rocking. But it does move in an out. Enough to feel, not enough to see. And enough that, now I have painted the backing plates, there's a slight rubbing sound when cornering.

Is it the bearings? Or is there some shimming needed? It's a 71 by the way. And I need to work out how to get that damned nut off.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Trikky2]

When cold there is play on the rear bearings, around one to two mm at the wheel rim.
Without this free play the bearings would run too tight when hot.

When the bearings wear they will generate a droning noise when driving which changes pitch with road speed and will get louder when cornering eg. If its louder in a left curve then it's the right hand bearing at fault because its getting increased load.

The clearance between the drum and the backplate is quite large by comparison and if your getting rubbing after doing the brakes it's more likely something is not adjusted or seated properly.

 

[lhu128l]

When cold there is play on the rear bearings, around one to two mm at the wheel rim.
Without this free play the bearings would run too tight when hot.

When the bearings wear they will generate a droning noise when driving which changes pitch with road speed and will get louder when cornering eg. If its louder in a left curve then it's the right hand bearing at fault because its getting increased load.

The clearance between the drum and the backplate is quite large by comparison and if your getting rubbing after doing the brakes it's more likely something is not adjusted or seated properly.

Tricky do you have anything to back these figures up? i have had a wheel bearing problems and a mot failure on my bus recently and i think it was down to Heritage suppling the wrong bearings C3 instead of standard clearance ones !!! i searched and searched but couldn`t find what is aceptable and what is not

 

[Trikky2]

When cold there is play on the rear bearings, around one to two mm at the wheel rim.
Without this free play the bearings would run too tight when hot.

When the bearings wear they will generate a droning noise when driving which changes pitch with road speed and will get louder when cornering eg. If its louder in a left curve then it's the right hand bearing at fault because its getting increased load.

The clearance between the drum and the backplate is quite large by comparison and if your getting rubbing after doing the brakes it's more likely something is not adjusted or seated properly.

Tricky do you have anything to back these figures up? i have had a wheel bearing problems and a mot failure on my bus recently and i think it was down to Heritage suppling the wrong bearings C3 instead of standard clearance ones !!! i searched and searched but couldn`t find what is aceptable and what is not

It was in the full set of VW workshop manuals I used to have.

Gave them away some years ago. They took up a lot of space since they covered T1 T2 T3 T4 and Transporter 1 and 2 :lol: Each volume covered a part rather than a model eg. The gearbox manual covered all gearbox types in the range. I don't know if the info was included in the Haynes or Bentley aftermarket manuals but its there in the original specs.

If your having problems with Mot and the bearings are correctly within tolerances then you need to find an Mot tester with a brain.

They need reminding they are testing a commercial vehicle over 40 years old that is rear wheel drive and uses parallel bearings, not some front wheel drive vehicle that uses tapered roller bearings on the rear axle.

 

[lhu128l]

well i couldnt find the specs written anywhere to show them ? roller bearing was a genuine vw mexico or vw brazil , and ball was a german C3 clearance ,both suplied by heritage . both sides failed mot with +2 mm movement . i looked on line in bently and Haynes

no comparison with the heritage supplied C3 clearance no name **** bearing to a decent *** 6207 (*** was cheaper as well :msn4: )

 

[BrotherNumberOne]

well i couldnt find the specs written anywhere to show them ? roller bearing was a genuine vw mexico or vw brazil , and ball was a german C3 clearance ,both suplied by heritage . both sides failed mot with +2 mm movement . i looked on line in bently and Haynes

no comparison with the heritage supplied C3 clearance no name **** bearing to a decent *** 6207 (*** was cheaper as well :msn4: )

I remember you posting about this on vzi or latebay? Did you get it sorted? Did you change the spacer?

 

[Trikky2]

Causes of excess play after fitting new bearings may not necessarily be due to the bearings themselves. Dodgy spacer, missing or wrong circlip can cause similar problems.

The worst case is if the hub casing has worn due to the bearing moving and wearing the housing oversize. This means the play is not coming from the bearing itself but from movement of the bearing in the housing.

Though its possible to fix this its much cheaper and easier to replace with good S/H hubs.