<VV> Rear wheel bearings

[Frank DuVal]

Ashley is driving her 65 while at college. The first two years she was 
local at Mary Washington. Now she is doing graduate studies at Marymount 
in Arlington. She has a cell phone and AAA. At least she is not driving 
140 miles one way...

Chuck,  where are you located? You seem to be here in VA. Lots of people 
can help you pack some more grease in your bearings. I would at least do 
what Mark M is discussing on Corvair Center forum, where you slip the 
axle out as far as it will go, then slide the slinger up the shaft and 
pop out the rubber shield from that cast (63, 64) style bearing. With 
the shield out of place, you can stuff some more wheel bearing grease in 
there. This was the first repair I did on my 64 Spyder when I bought it 
in 1976. Shop manual does not list this repair.

Now we (several clubs in VA) have access to the Blue Chip machine tool 
for removing the bearing from the axle shaft without damage. Then you 
can press the bearing out of the cast shell and do a proper cleaning and 
repacking of the bearing.

Have fun with this new adventure! Where is she going to college? Might 
be a club there to help if needed.

Frank DuVal



On 1/7/2012 10:45 AM, Harry Yarnell wrote:
> '63. 50 years old car. And you're loaning it to your daughter in college.
> 140 miles away. I cringe.
>
> When my daughter went to James Madison (early '90s), I got her a nice used
> '84 Century...and I worried then.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
> [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of chuck mckinley
> Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 10:05 AM
> To: VirtualVairs AA
> Subject:<VV>  Rear wheel bearings
>
> Friends,
> 	In the 19 years I've owned it, my 63 Monza has never been driven
> more
> than about 20 miles from home and back. Next week I'll be driving it
> (one way) about 140 miles to my daughter's college, where she'll drive
> it for the next 2-3 years. I'm not aware of any problems in any of its
> components, but I'm a little nervous about whether the rear wheel
> bearings might have a problem with 140 miles of highway speed (I-64 in
> Virginia). As far as I know, they're the original bearings on the car.
> The car has, very roughly, about 85,000 miles on the clock. My question
> to you is whether those tricky bearings give you any sort of early
> warning that they're about to fail, or whether they tend to give up the
> ghost catastrophically and leave you suddenly riding on the backing
> plates with no brakes at all. I've heard some spooky stories about this
> and need to know what to expect. In particular, is there anything at all
> I can check before I take this trip?
>
> For what it's worth, the car always passes the annual safety inspection
> in Virginia, and they check the running gear pretty thoroughly, but I
> don't know if their checks are capable of detecting potential problems
> in the rear bearings.
>
> Your comments, ideas, and suggestions will be most welcome, as always.
>
> Cheers,
> Chuck
>
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