Has anyone else had problems with the outer rear wheel bearing seal deciding to find its way out and therefore dumping all of the bearing grease onto the brake adjuster at the bottom of the brake drum? I discovered this when I heard a dry rubbing noise come from the rear. P****d me right off, I can tell you. Especially as the newly fitted bearings have only done about 10K miles. I was able to refit the seal by levering it back in with a screwdriver behind the stub axle. Alas, too late. It all has to come apart.... Whilst on the subject, which bearings are best to fit?? I see Heritage have some really expensive outer bearings for sale. Is it a case of 'you get what you pay for', or are the normal bearings adequate??
never had a seal pop, but i can imagine it could happen....think I used FAG bearings in the past...no issues from what I remember if you get the serial number off the bearing and/or seal and google it, you can usually get them from Bearing mart
Im aware theres a problem with the quality of rear bearing nowadays I think @MorkC68 has looked into this
Bearing lip seals don't usualy come adrift unless it wasn't fully home or the hub face was badly worn making it a loose fit. Another possibility.... overfilled with grease so it gets hot and the resulting pressure pushes it past the seal. A smear of threadseal on the outer face of the seal before pressing it into the hub can be beneficial if there is slight wear present. As for sources of bearings as per @vanorak Avoid "boxed" sets unless they stipulate clearly the manufacturer and country of origin. Some time ago I bought a set from a well known supplier and they were useless...boxed in the UK but manufactured on the Indian Sub continent. As pricing goes its a difficult one.... bearings can carry quite a high mark up depending on where they are bought so its down to who made them more than anything else. "German Quality" is my favourite hate...its a meaningless statement so avoid.
Not many bearings are made in Germany now , FAG bearings have plants in turkey Japan Korea Hungary and the quality is still there , the bearings from heritage are best avoided as the ball (6207) bearing is a Marmitee make and a C3 larger clearance bearing and the roller is a genuine vw but a no make poor quality one . The 6207 inner bearings can be bought anywhere for 6-7 quid for a FAG one .
Thanks Guys, Very good point re overloading with grease. I am probably guilty of overdoing it as we are all a bit keen on our own cars and apt to overdoing it. Cant think of any other reason for the seal popping, so many thanks for that, it probably was the reason. Shall take care next time not to blast too much in. Come to think of it I 'injected' it with the grease from a tube that fitted a mastic gun!! Have bought bearings from Machine 7 as they sold that 46mm knock off spanner too. Hope they're not c**p!!
What we have done to overcome the Marmitee quality of the wheel bearings is to use a taper roller bearing instead of the usual roller & we made a sleeve up to act as a stopper for the outer case which rests against the hub wall at the back - passing over the sleeve that's already in existence. To take the play out of the bearing itself was trial and error as in getting the castle nut lined up correctly - we had to use a surface grinder to take a few thou of the edge until we got the correct torque on the nut and the hole in line with the slot for the cotter pin. This took three 40 mile road tests - since then we have done ~400 miles and the bearings have bedded in nicely and no play has come back
Sorry for delay. Wow! What a great fix. Can i buy the sleeves to convert mine to taper rollers? Have to say, this is a much better solution to the problem. All the back wheels i have tried tend to flap around with a load of slack. Not ideal, but better than them being on the front wheels!!!
The sleeves are our own method of removing the play - you can do the mod easy enough if you have a lathe & surface grinder!
I'll just check under the bed... sure I used to have a surface grinder somewhere, what home would be complete without one?
A more sensible purchase as most homes are equipped with a sink anyway. I haven't used our dishwasher for years. There doesn't seem to be as much mess as there used to be. A small lathe would make better use of the space.
