<VV> Late Rear Bearings

[vairologist at juno.com]

> From: <corvair@mb.sympatico.ca>

> Now, I rebuilt mine myself because I had access to all the tools 
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> paint, big selection of shims 
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Smitty says: I agree with the DIY form of mechanicing.  I have a thought
for consideration related to the bearing job.  Much has been said about
the difficulty of taking apart, putting together, measuring, taking apart
again, sometimes encountered.  I haven't done a great number of these and
am not going to claim I am an authority but here is what I have found. 
Using the same shims when either replacing the bearings or cleaning and
lubing them is probably going to put 99% of them in the ballpark of
proper adjustment.  Hanks post as to the accuracy of dimension in bearing
manufacture is correct.  Bearings in all dimensions are accurate to
000.10 to 000.01 according to the bearing maker who used to be a sponsor
of our club years ago.  The spindles they are mounted on, I would be
willing to bet are all within ,001 between the bearing compression load
faces.  During the first day of manufacture they may have pulled every
10th hub off of the line and checked the bearing setting.  By the second
day they might check every hundredth one.  By the third day they all got
the same shims and they never looked back unless a problem developed.  So
since the spindle doesn't wear and the shims don't wear and the bearings
are accurately sized, then putting new bearings in with the original
shims should create no problem.  I believe all the test procedure in the
manual is to give the mechanic specs to work with in the event the thing
is just burned up and he has nothing to start with but new parts.