[T3] 73 T3 IRS rear bearings?

[William J]

 Jim :

 I did a bit of re-search and from what I have found is the outer (roller 
bearing) takes the load of the car. The inner ( ball ) with the spacer 
sleeve between the races takes up the in and out play . I'm sure you already 
know this . It seems like the roller bearings inner race is removable and of 
course the ball bearing has the cage .

 Like I said I don't hear any bearing noise driving and I rotated the wheel 
by hand and it felt smooth . I didn't raise the car and actually run the 
engine in drive to spin it faster .

 I never checked them before. It was only because I had that side off the 
ground that for some reason I decided to rock the tire .

 All I ever worked on as far as rear wheel bearings were Fords with rear 
wheel drive and a bad or rough bearing would always show up driving they 
were roller bearings pressed onto the axle's outside end with a 4 bolt plate 
that held the axle in place or they had no plate and the axle was secured by 
large C shaped inserts that fit through the diff's spider gears that fit in 
grove in the axle. The rough bearing sound could be duplicated running the 
car in drive on a lift and pulling the park brake cable to stop each wheel 
to make sure which side it was on yet that was one solid axle housing so to 
confirm which side it was .

 I will check the axle nut and see if it's loose. I didn't feel any in/ out 
movement. . I also never added new grease in the bearing hub on the trailing 
arm . I don't know how much play there is betwen the race and roller's or 
balls , they need some for grease and also expansion or they would seize.

 Also that movement I described has to be much more at the outside edge of 
the tire than it is at the axle.

William

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Adney" <jadney at VWType3.org>
To: <type3 at vwtype3.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2016 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [T3] 73 T3 IRS rear bearings?


> On 4 Feb 2016 at 10:53, William J wrote:
>
>>  I noticed the other day when I had the right rear jacked up that I
>> could grab the tire front and rear and rock it about 1/8" at the tires
>> edge and if I grabbed the tire top and bottom it moved the same
>> amount. There is no in/ out movement . The play feels much like a
>> loose front wheel bearing . Driving it I never hear any noise like a
>> rough bearing . The outer is a roller and inner is a ball bearing.
>
> I'm not completely sure, but I suspect what you're seeing is
> completely normal. The combination of the ball and roller bearing
> does not allow for removing all play, like a pair of tapered roller
> bearings would. These IRS rear wheel bearings seem to be extremely
> reliable. The only one I've ever seen fail was on a car where the nut
> and drum came loose and the outer roller bearing came apart. In spite
> of the damage, the parts were all still there and I was able to just
> put it back together. It lasted for at least several more years,
> after which I lost contact with the car.
>
> The only thing I might recommend would be to remove that new cotter
> pin and make sure the nut is tightened to spec. Then be sure to
> reinstall the cotter pin.
>
> -- 
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
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