Rear bearings, housing and stub axel issue - question

[Rdav1s]

After completely rebuilding the rear suspension (including 2 brand new trailing arms ) due to suspect worn bearings. I still have play, plenty of play.
My question is, having changed the bearings and applied 500nm to the nuts, is it most likely yo be the bearing housing or stub axel at fault? Or most likely me !!

Oh, it's a 14' Syncro BTW if that helps at all

[Aidan]

did you use proper bearing fit (loctite 638 or similar) to secure the inner bearing into bearing carriers, did it just slip in or did it need proper pressing in ?
There should be some play in the 6 and 12 position when cold, the rear bearings are plain bearings with a C3 clearance designed to be true when hot. There should be no play on fresh bearings in the 3 and 9 position. Take it for a run 20+ miles and recheck the play when hot if necessary, always good practice to take the van for a run to the MOT and ask them to check rear wheel bearing as presented and explain they are not taper bearings, annular ball bearing inner and roller outer and small amount of play is correct, some MOT testers don't know or understand this.
Syncros tend to be harder on the bearing housing than 2wd and tend to ovalize the bore the inner bearing sits in, if new bearing can be pushed in by fingers then the housing is probably passed its best.

[Rdav1s]

Hi Aidan,
From memory (a week ago ) the outer bearings on both sides need pressing in equally. The inner bearing needed minimal convincing, one was defo easier to fit in than the other, so im guessing housing is worn as stated.
I never used and bearing fit, lesson learned I guess.
I will strip the worst side and check the housing next week as my enthusiasm has taken a battering. Are syncro and 2wd housing the same? Battery doesn't say they are different.

Thanks again

[keynsham1]

My van has had an advisory of play in rear wheel bearings every year since 2006! I have spoken to the MOT tester but he said that if they feel play then they are obliged to mention it as they cannot be expected to know what style of bearings are in all cars, which I thought was a fair point!! So I just ignore it!!

[Aidan]

bearing housings are same for 2wd and 14" Syncro, the 16" ones are different, bearing housing is a 211 part, so actually late bay, not T3 specific

[silverbullet]

FWIW the very large torque required on rear stub axle nuts (revised upwards from the earliest models) is afaik to prevent the coarse splines "fretting" and wearing as the drive torque is applied. Its got nothing to do with the bearing clearances once installed.
Fitting the inner ball race to a new truly round housing bore will close up the clearance a little, but not a lot. They should require fitting under a press, not just a squeeze in a vise or less.

[silverbullet]

PS imho VW should have used locking compound on the splines but it would make assembly a messy job, although my 1972 Rover P6 specced loctite AVV (superceded by 270) for the IRS rear hub stub axles and they had to have the taper roller bearing preload set up before final assembly.