So, I'm at a headways at the moment. My beetle keeps chewing out wheel bearings on the front left hand side and I'm not sure why, or who is at fault.
I'll give you a quick run down of the construction of the front end and let you draw your own conclusions.
I recieved a 4" narrowed air kewld beam in january, I purchased a set of 2.5" drop spindles from Vollks and took the beam to a professional to have the link pins & king pins done correctly, and the entire beam (spindles, arm etc) assembled. The beam was installed at the end of february.
I installed the beam with my farther, we used 1 castor shim under each side of the bottom tube & standard length bolts.
Wheel allignment was done by sight & taken to pedders to have a wheel allignment done.
Pedders would touch anything but the steering arms because "link pins etc are too difficult to do an allignment on".
They screwed up my allignment (didnt center the steering before they started, ended up with no right lock). So they had to do another allignment. (if you can call straightening the front wheels and still not centering the steering box correctly an allignment).
It really wasnt that bad though and well and truely driveable now, so on the road it went.
Two months later the first wheel bearing went (on the way home from dubs at the abbey actually). We replaced the bearing, used bearing locktight stuff to ensure it wasnt spinning freely, & low and behold, the car is up on jack stands again with another flogged out bearing.
So my two questions are as follows: Why am I chewing out bearings so quickly? The wheels at sight, appear to be stright up and down & stright front to back.
Second question: How much responsibility is on the person who assembled the beam in the first place. Is the amount of shims they did (or didnt use) when setting up the spindles a contributing factor here? As I said, the camber doesnt look out, but thats not to say it isn't.
Feel free to ask any additional questions to try and guage a better feeling of the situation.
Thanks for your help.
Allbones.
The bearings will handle any amount of mis-alignment without failing so quickly, so for me, the problem will be either the quality of bearing, the instalation, the grease used (or application ie. too much, not enough or incorectly packed) or most likely the thrust adjustment upon installation.
Assuming standard ish size wheels, cleaned bearing cavity in the drum/disc and normal road use.
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
matberry wrote:The bearings will handle any amount of mis-alignment without failing so quickly, so for me, the problem will be either the quality of bearing, the instalation, the grease used (or application ie. too much, not enough or incorectly packed) or most likely the thrust adjustment upon installation.
Assuming standard ish size wheels, cleaned bearing cavity in the drum/disc and normal road use.
First bearing we used was japanese. Second was german. Will be able to look tonight and get the exact item number for confirmation.
The right side has had no issues at all, still spins freely with no noises etc and has the exact same bearing as I used on the left side (the japanese bearing). Same bearing grease was used aswell.
You say narrowed beam.
What wheel offset you got at the moment, particularly in comparison to stock?
Excessive offset from stock will reduce bearing lifespan.
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears. 👍
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta!
bajachris88 wrote:You say narrowed beam.
What wheel offset you got at the moment, particularly in comparison to stock?
Excessive offset from stock will reduce bearing lifespan.
I'm running standard german 15" smoothies with 135/80 rubber, so what ever standard offset is, +2" haha.
You stated that you and your father put the front end together. Is there any chance one of you did the right side and the other person did the left side.
Not implying you guys don't know, but has one of you put too much pre-load on the left side bearing and again the second time around (also as Mat implied). To much load is going to overheat the bearing and will chew it out.
Seems strange how its only happening to one side, with all else being equal.
Kev
I thought rebuilding a VW would be cheap - Shit I was wrong, just don't let the wife know !!!!
Click here for my (slowy) modded 1961 Beetle build.The grease used was "Castrol HTB" and the bearing used was "SKF Brand - Item No.: 30304J2/Q"
Was that bearing and cone?
"Obey your Dreams"!
62 Std beetle.
65 11 wnd Split "The Cross".
6? coming very soon!!!!
tar76 wrote:Was that bearing and cone?
Yes, I believe so. If I remember correctly, it was all sort of one unit?
I will take photos of the failures tonight & upload them also.
I would be looking at the machining in the hub to derermin if the bearing bores are square and parrell to each other. they only have to be a small amount out to cause excessive wear, roller bearings will not handle any misalignment.
Allbones wrote:tar76 wrote:Was that bearing and cone?
Yes, I believe so. If I remember correctly, it was all sort of one unit?
I will take photos of the failures tonight & upload them also.
The 'one unit' bit here worries me, so you DEFINATELY had to press in the outer race???
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
matberry wrote:Allbones wrote:tar76 wrote:Was that bearing and cone?
Yes, I believe so. If I remember correctly, it was all sort of one unit?
I will take photos of the failures tonight & upload them also.
The 'one unit' bit here worries me, so you DEFINATELY had to press in the outer race???
yer I use a hammer , if press not handy
😂🤪😂🤪😂
car forums. where a lot of peoples good intentions end up taking a good old car off the road forever never ever to see the road again. 🥲
Me too but I've heard of people not changing the puter race. That's what I was meaning, has the outer race been changed whilst fitting the new bearings.
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
matberry wrote:Me too but I've heard of people not changing the puter race. That's what I was meaning, has the outer race been changed whilst fitting the new bearings.
its a must, some brands don't have the exact same angle of taper and will lead to premature failure when a non matching bearing and race are paired.
I would be inclined to say that might be the problem here.
71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE
I was incorrect, It is a bearing and cone configuration.
I've been speaking with a few people and I have a few ways to try and rectify the issue now, so thanks very much everyone for all your help. I will advise how I go.
You have pm 🙂
Oh who was it in queens park on Sunday around lunch time? 3 early looking beetles rolled by...
Volkswagen Drivers Club of Queensland - member 🙂
STIDUB - yep its still a work in progress
Vwdcq club car racing/ and crashing while my bug isn't finished.
The above are personal views, no more, no less
STIDUB wrote:You have pm 🙂
Oh who was it in queens park on Sunday around lunch time? 3 early looking beetles rolled by...
They would have probably been "Stanley", his son & "Bob Down" if it was a beige bug, white 70's bug & late 50's grey bug. I was meant to try and make it but couldnt on account of being un able to roll.
It was probably Rob and his wife in the two "flash beetles' and Marcus in his sons blue beetle....i'd already left.
Made me miss having an old car to cruise in on weekends.
Wonder where the subie/rotor powered bus got to?
Volkswagen Drivers Club of Queensland - member 🙂
STIDUB - yep its still a work in progress
Vwdcq club car racing/ and crashing while my bug isn't finished.
The above are personal views, no more, no less
swap over the hubs and see what happens and make sure the inner cup is fitted right
👍👍😂🙅🥷😬🤓
Allbones wrote:The grease used was "Castrol HTB" and the bearing used was "SKF Brand - Item No.: 30304J2/Q"
a 30304 is a metric tapered roller bearing and comes as a complete bearing Cup [outer] and cone [inner part- with rollers and cage]
these are not like LM11910- LM11911 Cup & cone.. [example only] which can be bought individually and some cones can be used with different cups.. LM11910-LM11912
but the metric bearings are a set,, 30304 cup & cone number..
that grease sounds like what I bought many years ago, but it was green [clay based grease] so, I still use it on My tappet cover gaskets.. lol ..
cheers
LEE
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Which bearings are failing on the left side? Inner, outer or both?
Have you been driving in water?
I read it on samba, so it must be correct.
Sometimes Volkswagen dealers sell spare parts. Amazing isn't it!😂
ragged wrote:Which bearings are failing on the left side? Inner, outer or both?
outer left side seems to be the only one failiing.
And I have only been in water when it rains haha.
So explain how you're setting the thrust adjustment.
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
Water is entering via the speedo cable at the back of the spindle. There is a rubber seal that slips over the speedo cable, and into the back of the spindle, but with dropped spindles, there is an extra hole that needs to be sealed with silicon. Whilst your at it, smear a little silicon over the cap where the cable and retaining clip are to ensure a good seal at that end too.
Water enters and contaminates the grease stopping it from doing its job.
Dave
ragged wrote:Water is entering via the speedo cable at the back of the spindle. There is a rubber seal that slips over the speedo cable, and into the back of the spindle, but with dropped spindles, there is an extra hole that needs to be sealed with silicon. Whilst your at it, smear a little silicon over the cap where the cable and retaining clip are to ensure a good seal at that end too.
Water enters and contaminates the grease stopping it from doing its job.
Dave
That would make sense given its the only variable really. I will try this when its replaced.
