1. Home
  2. Volkswagen, hot (Aircooled)
  3. Bearing Races Question and Wheel Bearing Pack Question

Bearing Races Question and Wheel Bearing Pack Question

Dearest RAMVA,

New outer wheel bearing for my disc brakes (ghia...stock) cuz the old one had a cople of rollers with a couple of chunks missing (yipes!). Whats the best way to take the old race out and put the new one in? I tried tapping it out on the little tap notches in the rotor, but no luck there. Is this a job for a machine shop?

When packing wheel bearings, is one supposed to fill the inside of the rotor with grease? I didn't seem to get that out of the haynes (more just a liberal glob on the inside (relative to the rotor as opposed to the car) of each bearing) but had read in a couple of places to basically fill the cavity in the rotor with grease, not to mention that situation was the case when I pulled the rotor off.

This is more of a lesson learned from getting my rotors turned, you get what you pay for. An extra three dollars a rotor goes a long way if you find the right machine shop. Also, you get WHERE you pay for. Re-manned calipers at Autozone and Kragen were both going to be ten (or maybe twenty, Nancy couldn't remember how much her calipers were off the top of her head) dollars more than at BRAND NEW calipers the OVW, and they had a core charge ON TOP of that. The TRW (brazilian) calipers at the OVW were outright! Napa had a good deal (outright again, a little more than at the OVW, but still cheaper than the Fake-LAPS's) on American made calipers too, but the part had just been discontinued...

Nuff of me rambling, time for you guys to do some. Thanks so much!

Regards, Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Holzer
Loading thread data ...

A machine shop can do it, or you can get a bigger hammer and punch.

You can fill it up as long as you leave some space in there so that as the bearing turns it can push any excess out of the way of the rollers. As long as there is room for the rollers to clear a path for themselves, you'll be fine.

Unless you run into someone who has old stock, they're probably all selling the same calipers.

-

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

-----------------------------------------------

Reply to
Jim Adney

My newfound local machine shop is reasonable, so I'll have them do it. I hit that thing so many times thinking it was going to move little bits at a time and the movements would become more noticable...not the case fifteen or twenty minutes into it -- seemingly no movement. Would a puller work? I remember a picture of a puller I've seen (in my autoshop textbook from highscool, or maybe from conetmpaltion of my navel) with three stationary arms and two adjustable arms to reach inside and yank. Does such thing exist?

I shoved a lot but left a lot of room open. Bout an inch or so around the insides of each wheel bearing, and a bit on the outsides of each as well. I'll redo it if an inch is unsatisfactory, so please tell me if it is. Plus, I'm doing the RF this weekend, after I get the old race out/new race into the rotor.

Thanks very much for the advice!

-Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Holzer

That sounds like plenty of room. You just need to leave enough empty volume that the rollers can push all the grease that is in their path out of the way. This is called channeling and is essential for normal bearing operation.

-

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

-----------------------------------------------

Reply to
Jim Adney

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.