Well older vans are more likely to suffer general failures than newer
vans regardless. I have fixed several newer vans that had bad front
wheel bearings as well as some older vans. I don't blame the bearing of
either type, since both bearing types last a good long time when
serviced now and then.

My opinion is that they felt the need to increase the strength of the
spindle for various reasons and the bearing size changed due to that.

It is a big world. VW designed and built the Vanagon family for the
whole world and we just got a small segment of the product line in the
USA/CA market. They made at least 3 versions of ET30 steel and alloy
wheels for use with wider tires. We got one version here, the alloys
many 86+ came with. The original steel wheels carried over from Bays
were ET39 and used narrower 185 tires. The wider 205 tire combines with
the pushed out later ET30 rims and puts the outside edge of the tire
considerably farther out. This has got to load the spindle and the outer
wheel bearings more.

If all they wanted to do was use bearings with smaller rollers they
could have done so without changing the spindle size. They could have
just made the inner race thicker. Then the rumored "better bearing"
would have fit all years, including Bays.

Mark

Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
> all I can say is 'it is better' ...............since early vans can have
> outer front wheel bearing failure ..
> and I don't think I've seen the later style fail ever.
>
> with the spindle being bigger ..
> and the drum bore being the same..
> they had to use smaller diameter bearing rollers.
> there more ....there may be more rollers ( not sure though - I'd have to
> look )
> therefore ...they last longer.
>
> switch to ET30 wheels ?
> when ?
> as far as I know there is only one style of 14 inch steel vanagon wheel..
> well, I take that back, I have seen extra heavy duty 'thicker steel'
> aftermarket wheels, like for your winter set of tires, in 14 inch steel.
>
> or perhaps the reference is to the 14 inch alloy vanagon wheel.
> yeah....maybe it's the alloy.
> when do those start ?
> 86 would be my guess .
> or perhaps not until the 87 wolfsburg perhaps.
>
>
>