While I was trying to adjust the brakes, I noticed that the right rear wheel was difficult to turn when off the ground. No, its difenitely NOT the brake shoes. It would turn about 1/4 of a turn freely them jam. Is it the diff?
Raf

Geez! Your Ghia seems to be jinxed! Maybe you need to search for an exorcism forum!
If the diff works OK, with the rear end up in the air you can turn one wheel in one direction & the other one goes in the reverse provided the brakes don't bind. I've had 2 diffs break over 30 years (both kombis) & they both involved losing teeth on the crown wheel = complete lack of drive in 1 case & a rythmic "grind-grind" in the other case when only a few teeth fell off. I'd say something on the brake mech has jammed (hand brake cable???) but you should check by trying to turn the other side. If the diff is ok it should turn freely even if the other side is jammed. That is why you get bogged if only 1 wheel is stuck- unless you have an LSD which is how Kubelwagens & Typ 181's managed to have decent off road performance with 2WD.

LHS is OK. So you are saying its not the diff then, right? I hope so, because it would be a lot easier to repair brakes than diff. I have no problems while driving if that tells you anything
Raf

A diff failure is pretty catastrophic so if you can drive OK cross it off the list. So when you jack it up, the wheel locks??? I'd be really suspicious of the hand brake cable now because if it's the old swing axle tranny they droop like mad when they're jacked up & that would put a drag on the H/B cables. Is the little saddle clamp in posn on the brake backing plate?? If not, the lever could be flopping around & fouling 1 of the ribs on the inside of the drum. Try pushing the H/B cable into the drum & see if it fixes it. Try jacking up the swing arm till it's horizontal & see if it still does it.

[Edited on 16-9-2003 by geodon]

Geodon, Kubelwagens & Things have good offroad abilities because most of the weight is at the back over the driving wheels, not because they have an LSD. All rear engined VW's are like this and is why you will see them in the weirdest places.....Splitties in the Simpson Desert, Buggies Bajas & Kombi's on the beach, Type 3's in the NT bush.....etc etc....

Jack the car up by the spring plate at the wheel end to eliminate the hand-brake cable problem that geodon mentioned.

Make sure the vehicle is in neutral. If you still have excessive drag, then you possibly need to check the wheel bearings. It wouldn't hurt to clean and repack them at the very least, then torque them to specification. If you still have a problem, maybe you need to get new bearings.

Of course there are probably a multitude of other things that it COULD be.... with my IRS I'd just drop the driveshaft so the wheel is isolated from the rest of the drivetrain, but its not so simple with the old swingers.

IICab, I'm not the originator of that claim. If you wan't to tell manufacturers, installers & buyers of LSD's they're wasting their time & money, feel free!

Thank you all, I am much happier now knowing its most likely not the diff. I can handle the rest

Raf,

When your jacking up a swing axle car, and you don;t want the wheels to droop or tuck in, slip a 17mm nut just under the trailing arm before you jack it up off the ground. That way the nut will stop the spring plate dropping when your jacking up. Invaluable when you are changing boots on your gearbox shafts too!

Cheers

Steve

Interesting tip, thanks

That would have to be the tip of the month!!! :thumb (I wonder why I never thought of that? :o)