Dave:
Sounds like an out-of-round brake drum.

Neal Barrentine
Bloomington, Indiana
1986 GL
1960 Baja Bug

On May 1, 2006, at 11:00 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Subject: Scraping Sound--Wheel Bearing?
>
> Here is a puzzler.
>
> My van has new rear brakes and drums.  Before I had that done, I was
> power
> washing it and noticed a lot of rust or Arizona red dirt coming out of
> the
> right rear wheel when directing spray at it.  This was right after I
> bought
> it.  After power washing, I heard the wheel scraping for the first
> time. It
> went away after driving for a while.  Hard turns and stops makes it
> come
> back.  I had brakes and drums put on at Brakes Plus and they said it
> was
> really scraping bad after they got it all back together.  They said
> they
> tightened the axle nut and test drove again and it started up again.
> They
> tighten it some more.  They got several turns out of it I guess and it
> was
> better for a while.  I took the van to mechanic and it wasn't making
> noise
> at that time.  He said it seemed fine.  They said if it was wheel
> bearings,
> it would make noise all the time.  It scrapes depending on the load on
> the
> wheel.  A little throttle and the sound goes away, or let it engine
> brake a
> little and it goes away.  Makes me wonder if the wheel is able to move
> some.
>   It scrapes as it rotates and when I had it jacked up it was scraping
> in
> the same spot each revolution and sounds like it the drum against the
> thinner metal cover behind the wheel but I couldn't find a particular
> spot.
> Looking at the now slightly worn brake shoes they are not wearing
> evenly on
> that wheel.  The scraping is getting worse and I am embarrassed to
> drive it
> in public.
>
> Anyone know what the likely problem is?
>
> Thanks
> Dave
> 91 Syncro
>