Club 80-90 Forums

My van is making a scraping/creaking noise, which sounds very similar to a noise I've had in the past and which I cured by replacing the rear wheel-bearings. When the noise reappeared recently, I assumed it was cheapo wheel-bearings at fault so I bought good-quality FAG bearings from Brickwerks and had them fitted by my local garage (who I trust to do a good job). I got the van back last night with new bearings but the noise is still there...

I realise it's hard to diagnose a noise without hearing it but is anyone aware of this as a common problem? The garage seem to suspect the (rusty) brake drum backplate contacting the (rusty) brake drum. I seem to remember having a problem on a previous 2WD van and it took the garage a while to eliminate it.

Any advice on how I can cure this?

I like it when people people assume things like that - the garages £££s start rolling round.
Surely it would make more sense to diagnose the problem first then replace parts if required rather than the other way round, far cheaper that way!
My neighbours Phewgot had exactly the same and he thought it was the bearings, two minutes later I had 'adjusted' the backplate - noise gone!

Any update on "that noise"? I seem to have a very similar noise wondered if it was your backplate..

Hi,
I had similar noise recently. It started very suddenly on a main road. It was very loud and did not sound good.

I stopped and stripped down the rear drum off the main road and found a tiny piece of the rear plate had got jammed in the rim of the drum.

Equally, as you say, if your rear plate is rusted and touches the drum at all, it will sound like you describe.

Before buying anything I would check all round the edge of your rear plates to check if they touch the drums (not with your fingers).

If this is the issue, Brickwerks sell replacements.

Take the drum off, and you should see bright spots on the edges of the backplate where it's rubbing.

The noise turned out to be rear wheel bearings - again! I'm now aware that there is a known problem with the Type 25 where the bearing carriers wear, allowing the bearings to turn in the housing. A reasonable solution (which I've used this time) is to fit the new bearings using a bearing retainer compound (made by Loctite and Wurth).

We shall see how long it lasts this time...