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.

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.

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

The grease used was "Castrol HTB" and the bearing used was "SKF Brand - Item No.: 30304J2/Q"

Was that bearing and cone?

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.

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.

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...

Quote:

Originally posted by STIDUB You have pm Oh who was it in queens park on Sunday around lunch time? 3 early looking beetles rolled by...

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?

swap over the hubs and see what happens and make sure the inner cup is fitted right

Which bearings are failing on the left side? Inner, outer or both?

Have you been driving in water?

So explain how you're setting the thrust adjustment.

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