[T3] Wheel Bearings

[Joe Plowick III]

Yea, both bearings were undersized on the spindle which I thought was odd.
 The spindle looked okay, and both were actually coated in the original
cosmoline (or whatever it's called) to preserve them.  I cleaned that stuff
off and lightly sanded the spindle to ensure that it was clean of any rust,
etc.  I'm going to try the second spindle tonight just to see if there is a
difference.  I know they have real close tolerances, but for both bearings
to not fit seems to tell me the issue is with the bearings.

Joe Plowick
'69 Type 3 Sqareback
'02 GTI 337 Edition


On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 9:32 AM, Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:

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