Adjusting front wheel bearings

[mgbman]

The van passed its MOT today and the emissions were well below the maximum limit. Not bad for an old CU engine with original Solex carbs. Very pleasing.

Anyway the tester said that the nsf wheel bearing had a small amount of play and I would like to know how easy it is to adjust the bearing. I would rather not replace the bearing until I have to and when I can source quality parts.

Your help would be much appreciated.

[kevtherev]

if you have a haynes manual it is very well covered in there.

[Ian Hulley]

I would rather not replace the bearing until I have to and when I can source quality parts.

http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/t ... early.html



Ian

[California Dreamin]

The tester said that the nsf wheel bearing had a small amount of play and I would like to know how easy it is to adjust the bearing

When I read statements like this they always concern me a great deal.

As an EX MOT tester myself I find it quite staggering that a current tester is reporting 'slight' front wheel bearing play as if it's a fault!
Infact..I would go as far as to say....if your offside front HASN'T got any play in it, IT NEEDS SLACKENING OFF SO IT HAS.
Taper roller bearing sets are adjusted WITH PLAY! to allow for expansion when they get hot. The worst thing you can do it to get rid of that play by loading the bearings.

The problem here is historic..most modern vehicles use back to back BALL bearing sets that are torqued up very tight and current MOT testers do not come into contact with older style taper roller bearings very often so are unfamiliar with how they should be adjusted.

Having said all of the above^^^^If the van is new to you and bearing service is unknown: As these vans 'typically' do very low mileage over many years the grease in wheel bearings does tend to go hard and set well before the disc's need replacing.
My recommendation would be to remove the disc's every 3 - 5 years, carefully examine the bearings (thoroughly clean in petrol or similar) then re-pack/re-fit with new grease.


Martin

[pionte]

Taken directly from Bentleys manual


Tighten nut firmly to seat bearing, at the same time turn the wheel so bearing does not jam.

Back of nut

wheel bearing clearance is correctly adjusted when thrust washer can be moved slightly with screwdriver and finger pressure, do not pry or twist screwdriver


As said previously there should be some play.... its a feeling that you get over years of testing to how much play there should be, jack the wheel up, grab hold top and bottom and rock in and out, if you can feel slight play then thats good, too much and it could do with tightening, as I say its a feeling ...something that you only really get when you have done a few. If you are worried try and find someone to double check for you, its your van, your wheel and your life, if you are unsure get it checked. But i would hope that the MOT tester would at least know if it was excessive!!

Martin.

[mgbman]

Thank you for your quick replies. I have checked both front wheels and there is only a very slight amount of play.

I think your comments and advice are spot on and the tester has not made any other advisory comments about the van. We have the MOT so will enjoy the van now summer is here.

There are plenty of other jobs to do on the van as you would see in my other posts, like fuel tank and pipework replacement, gear linkage bushes and treating the rust in the floor above the fuel tank.

After taking out the spare wheel I managed to put my hand with camera above the tank and the pics show some rusting and small fuel leakage from the balance pipe seals. Tank itself has road dirt on top of it and some rust, but have decided to replace with new tank from Brickwerks.

[pionte]

just seen that you live in TW, im in the cheap seats in Tonbridge.... post up some pics of your van so I can keep an eye out for you

[mgbman]

Hi pionte, have you joined the Kentish VW Klub? Great folks and lots of meets and camping, road runs etc. and cheap to join.

Please look up: http://www.kvwk.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will post lots of pics of our Devon once I have worked out how to upload them to the forum.