My bearings showed no signs of problems.
The only reasoon I bothered them was that the vehicle had 278 K on it.
When I got in there I found grease that was hard caked and not getting
near the bearings.
I just ground off the nuts and installed new nuts.
Its a job you can do yourself and just cinch the nuts down tight until
you can get to a repair shop with a 1 15/16" scocket and bigh torque
wrench to finish up the job.

Stan

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 12:50:09 -0600 Chris Mills <scmills@tntech.edu>
writes:
> So do these bearings develop slop that allows the axle to slide in
> and out?
>
> I would say my axle nut was loose but I know (think) it isn't.
>
> I'm not driving it anyhow these days - still trying to rebuild the
> interior
> - so little chance of crashing due to a wheel falling off.
>
> At 05:54 PM 1/9/02 -0600, you wrote:
> >I did this job today. Just rebuilt my existing boxes.
> >Two hours crusing pawn shops looking for big socket for the
> >nut........... no luck.
> >Two hours crusing local auto repair shops to find someone to torque
> the
> >nuts back after I ground the old ones off and installed my new
> bearings,
> >seals, brake lines, wheel cylinders and of course that big nut.
> >The total labor time on this job was about four hours as advised
> by
> >several list members.
> >The bearings were loose but didn't show the tell tale blue form
> heat.
> >The old grease was pretty stiff and most of it was under the spacer
> and
> >nowhere near the bearings. It looked to be the old type that has
> cotton
> >fiber in it, definitely not any chance of it moving near the
> bearings.
> >I've wrecked out a few vanagons and I usually find grease about
> like 90
> >wt in there so I was surprised to see heavy clumps.
> >The bearings were getting pretty sloppy by the looks of the seal
> area on
> >the stub axles, it was spread out much more than the 1/8" inch or
> less
> >that I like to see.
> >Strangest thing! I actually had a try-arc plier that took the
> locking
> >ring right out.
> >If you're planning on doing the bearing replacement or re packing
> your
> >rear axle stubs I'd suggest that you put it off as long as you can
> >............. boy an I tired.
> >I'll drive by the finalist repair shop tomorrow morning and pay the
> nice
> >fellow $10.00 for two minutes work torquing the two big nuts.
> (still
> >cheaper than tool rental to do it myself).
> >Thanks to all for your  advise.
> >
> >Stan Wilder
> >
> >On Tue, 8 Jan 2002 21:25:18 -0600 Stan Wilder <wilden1@juno.com>
> writes:
> > > I've just about mustered up enough courage to install my rear
> new
> > > wheel bearings and seals.
> > > I'm going to just grind off the old nut (got new replacements).
> > > The question:
> > > Is it easier to pull the entire swing arm assembly or just the
> drive
> > > axle box to knock out the old bearings and install the new
> seals?
> > > I've got a complete spare set of arms with all of the brake
> parts
> > > attached and I'm considering just installing the new parts in
> the
> > > spare swing arms and doing a swap. This looks to be the
> simplest
> > > method although it appears to still be an all day job.
> > > Your comments are encouraged.
> > >
> > > Stan Wilder
> > > 83 Aircooled Westfalia
>
> Chris M. <Busbodger - "TEAM SLOWPOKE">
> Cookeville, Tennessee
>
> ICQ# 5944649
> scm9985@tntech.edu
>
> '78 VW Westfalia (67 HP -> that is...67 Hamster Power)
> '65 Beetle - Type IV powered
> '99 CR-V AWD station wagon
> '81 CB900 Custom moto-chickle
> 2.5 Corvair engines for my Trans-vair Conversion
>
>
>

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