It's because the early outer front wheel bearings are prone to wear out a
bit.
The inners are the same ..
the outer wheel bearing is different mid 83 and on.

I've seen the front outer wheel bearings on early vans be worn out a few
times,
and almost never any later style ones..
even with no service for a hundred thousand miles ....apparently anyway.
just amazing how well they last.

oddly ..the spindle is larger, so the bearing is 'smaller', or thinner,
comparing ID to OD .
they must have it figured out that smaller diameter rollers last better.
Perhaps it's more smaller diameter rollers , so more bearing surface area
perhaps.  I never have counted the difference in #'s of rollers between the
two types.

if you know which one you have ..
like if it's the early ...just say it's an 81, and you won't be near their
VIN split.
or if you know it's the late ..just say it's an 85 ..so you wont' be near
their VIN split.

I think I've seen an 84 with the early type .
I'm quite sure I took a front disc/hub off an 84 of mine to use on an 85,
and I had to swap outer bearings and races for it to fit.

Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Duntz" <eduntz@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 7:55 PM
Subject: Front wheel bearing differences

There seems to be only one brake disc  for all '80 to '85 model years, but
more than one wheel bearing style (up to some time in '83, and then from mid
'83 on.) I'm wondering why the same disc could house two different wheel
bearings.

I also noticed that the Bus Depot seems to list different chassis numbers
that correspond with the mid-year change of wheel bearings- they list the
same month and year, but different chassis numbers. It would seem that if
you're ordering early front wheel bearings from them, you might want to
cross reference with another vendor to see whether to order early or late.

Ed in CT