[T3] 73 T3 IRS rear bearings?

William J catnine09 at dslextreme.com
Sat Feb 6 12:25:15 PST 2016


 I'm confused about a few things . Keith Park said one axle nut came loose . 
Was this the result of wear in the bearings or the cotter pin allowed the 
nut to turn?

 I do realize the axle nut is supposed to be very tight . A few issues I 
have run across on the Samba forum and a few you tube video's . One Samba 
one stated that the housing of the trailing arm is softer metal that the 
bearings and over time the roller bearing outer race being harder can 
enlarge the bearing housing whcih then allows the roller bearing to move in 
them housing because of slop between the rollers outer race and the housing 
bore itself. One you tube video shows this yet in that case the nut and hub 
were off yet you could see the roller outer race move up and down a bit. in 
that bore. In another video this was a dune buggy the owner heard a rather 
loud bearing noise and changed out the trailing arm with another because the 
threads on the shaft were a bit bad on the end yet the bearings were bad.

 I don't know yet find it difficult to buy the housing bore itself gets 
hammered out . Perhaps in off road driving this may be possible yet these 
cars with no load in the cargo area on a paved road would cause this damage, 
the  car does not weigh that much.. I would imagine it more likely the 
roller bearing seized and wore the bore.

 My understanding is the roller takes the weight and the ball takes the end 
play , if the ball is installed where the roller belongs the ball bearing 
will shortly fail.

 I can't say how long this play has been there. I always set the parking 
brake when I raise the car and release it if doing a rear brake adjust. I 
don't hear any sort of bearing noise driving or roughness rotating the wheel 
. I did find quite a few VW dealership receipts in the car and based on this 
know some work was done at a dealer yet this does not mean the tech was well 
trained and some work I saw when I got this car was the nuts were missing 
that secure the auto trans mount to the trans , noticed a bang on shifts 
whcih lead me find this plus the trans to frame ground strap was hanging . 
With that said who knows who did what. I should have checked the nut with 
the new cotter long ago .

  Once I have time I will check that nut and also check the other side to 
see it if too has this play . I didn't feel any in/out movement just 12/6 
O'clock and 3 and 9 O'clock .

 I just hope it's not something real bad . Can't say I like this movement 
simply because while driving it makes sense the front of the rear tires will 
move out altering the toe and on decel the opposite toe will accure.Yet the 
rear  tires don't support this as far as uneven wear .

William
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Adney" <jadney at VWType3.org>
To: <type3 at vwtype3.org>
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2016 6:32 PM
Subject: Re: [T3] 73 T3 IRS rear bearings?


> On 5 Feb 2016 at 21:07, Keith Park wrote:
>
>> There really shouldnt be any play, its a clamp fit with the bushing
>> in the moddle so make sure that nut is torqued to where it should be, if 
>> its
>> been loose, there may be things worn in there that need to be replaced
>> if they have been chocking around but Id try tightening the nut first and
>> see how it feels.
>
> There will still be play IN the bearings, even after the play in the
> various parts of the shaft has been tightened out. But I agree that
> it's important to make SURE that nut is tightened to spec. Note that
> the spec is just over 200 lb-ft, so it's not just a matter of
> snugging things up.  ;-)
>
>
> -- 
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
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