Very Warm Rear Hubs - Wheel Beaings?

[mike.s]

Hi - Since getting my van on the road, i`ve been driving it loads and i`ve noticed the rear hubs were getting quite warm - i could easily hold my hand on them so i wouldn`t say they were red hot but they`re getting hotter than the fronts which i would expect to take the braking load.

Yesterday i did my first `longish` trip into work 30 miles away and back again where i was travelling about 55mph most of the time. When i got home yesterday, i checked them, and especially the on the left was quite hot - i could hold my hand on it, but nevertheless, it was pretty hot.

I`ve checked the brakes aren`t sticking on and go off as soon as you release the brake and the handbrake isn`t sticking either. I have already had the drums off a few weeks back to replace the shoes but I took the hubs apart last weekend to check them - the hub nuts were way too tight, so much so that i actually bent a scaffold pole trying to get one side off !
when i did get them off, i had a look and the stub shaft spins freely and easily - the wheel doesn`t rumble or anything but probably has about 1mm play in each side.

I tried to inject some more grease past the seal into the bearings although they looked greased already and rebuilt them torqueing the hub nuts correctly this time.

It doesn`t seem to have made much differece though as like i said the hub is still getting pretty warm.

Any ideas on this - could it be the bearings even though they look and feel ok?

If so, is it an easy job for me to do and how would i do it? Are they similiar to front bearings in that there is a race that you drift in and out that butts up against a ridge?

Its a 68 Bay by the way.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Trikky2]

Doubt its the bearings. If they were making that much heat they would be noisy.
You tested the brakes released with the handbrake but what about the foot brake?
Jack it up, get someone to press the brake pedal quite hard, then, when the take their foot off, check the wheel is free to spin straight away. If not then you may have a sticking cylinder but more likely is the rear flexi pipes are old and swollen and restricting the return of fluid up the pipes back to the master cylinder.

 

[mike.s]

have tested holding foot brake hard and then releasing and its fine. All the brake cylinders and flexi hoses are brand new and the master cylinder is a 2nd hand one which was working fine in another van and appears to in mine.

the van had been stood for 20 odd years previously to me getting it - not sure if thatd make any difference. Also, its an empty panel van so pretty noisy with the rattling, whining frm the gearbox,etc - might be dificult to hear if it there was a bad bearing! It does spin fine - i had the cv joints and drive shaft disconnected and they both spin easily with no noise.


at a bit of a loss really!

 

[Trikky2]

i had the cv joints and drive shaft disconnected and they both spin easily with no noise.
at a bit of a loss really!

If there were a problem with the bearings then you would have heard them making noise during that test, on top of which they would develop excessive play rapidly.

 

[mike.s]

could the actual shoes or drums cause the problems? There was a rusty section on the drum where the shoe had been for 20 years or. I emeried it up as est as i could but this short section was quite pitted. Also, i used the original shoes at the rear as they had plenty of wear left in them.

 

[67panel]

you would still feel it rubbing ,but how hot is your to hot can you put your hand on the wheel ok ?remember brakes work by converting kinetic energy into heat energyso will get quite hot,and there is more mass in rear hubs to retain heat.

 

[mike.s]

i can hold my hand them easily but i just thought - 'that feels hot!' Its pretty difficult to guage these kind of things when i `ve never driven or owned a van before!

Didn`t realise the rear drums are bigger than the front too!