[T3] Wheel Bearings

Jim Adney jadney at vwtype3.org
Thu Jul 18 07:32:49 PDT 2013


On 18 Jul 2013 at 7:56, Joe Plowick III wrote:

> The bearings that I got were a MasterPro brand, part numbers were A1 and
> A15.  The outers cost $5.19 each, and the inners cost $5.59 (or
> vice-versa).  I'm using a set of NOS '73 spindles.  I tried cleaning up the
> bearing surfaces with a little fine grit sandpaper and WD40 just to remove
> a little bit of surface rust that was on there.  There was just no way
> those bearings were going on there.  In fact, I almost got the inner one
> stuck on there when test fitting it.  I'll look up the numbers for a '73
> Beetle and see what those show.  Maybe I'll try a different brand too, but
> everything else I was finding was at least twice the price.

I don't recognize those numbers, so they're part of some proprietary 
system. Were the inner and outer BOTH undersized on the ID? Check the 
shafts to make sure they don't have a nick somewhere that would have 
upset a bit of metal around the nick. The correct fit is a very close 
slip fit, so if those spindles have been sitting on someone's shelf 
for 40 years, they have a pretty good chance of getting bumped a few 
times.

Those prices are quite low. Twice the price would not surprise me, so 
you may have to pay that to get the correct bearings, if the shafts 
are not the problem.

For others that are watching this thread, if you have a '68 you have 
to be careful because the inner bearing changed its ID in mid-year, 
and the early inner bearings were smaller. As Dave said, VW used the 
same (late style) bearings on early Rabbit rears.

I have both versions, plus the seals, etc.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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