Club 80-90 Forums

hi all

Went to Volksworld show at Sandown last weekend about a 60 mile each way journey and one of the back wheels of my van was noticeably hotter than the other almost too hot to touch but not quite the other was warm but not hot. I have checked both brakes and all are free and work well and not rubbing when jacked up and spun, I changed the rear bearings towards the end of last year and the van has done very little distance since, anyone have any ideas? the van is a 1.6 1983 with a CS engine. Really enjoyed the show plenty of top vans

If the bearing has no play and the breaks are free, then was the handbrake fully released. Ive done this myself, although I didnt check the temp from the wheels but I could imagine they would get a bit toastie.

bearing to tight or no lubricant?

or it's failed again

Maybe brake seized/sticky one side? - Would you have worried so much if they had both been hot rather than one warm and one hot? ie it may be the warm one that needs looking at not the hot one.

cheers for the quick replies,

I don't think I have left the hand brake dragging as this has been going on for some time and I'm sure I cant keep leaving the hand brake dragging on every journey, I have checked the freeness of both the wheels when hot and there are no dragging brake pad noises and I have also stripped both and renewed all break retaining springs etc and checked the pistons were free to move which both were and I have checked the hand brake operating bar is adjusted correctly. Kevtherev what do you mean when you said the bearing could be too tight? when I replaced the bearings the inner was a caged bearing and the outer a parallel roller bearing both bearings were kept apart by a spacer so I can not see how it would be possible to over tighten the assembly and all were greased using the correct grade of grease. I have driven with a hand break dragging before in a car and it gets hot very quickly with smoke! don't get me wrong its not hot enough to loose skin touching just that you would not want to hold your fingers against the drum for too long. Just thought someone might have had the same problem at some point. Cheers everyone again for your ideas

Maybe a dodgy bearing?? Just guessing man, good luck with it!

Sorry, I thought you had only experienced the hot hubs the once when returning from the show when I suggested the H`brake may have not been full released. Were the rear hubs still hot or were they cooled down when you jacked them up and spun them.

Thanks for the ideas, I must admit that I have only checked them once cooled down so I think I will check next time when the brake is hot to see if the shoes are dragging. Cheers again

Not sure if you are aware that also the bearings expand when warmed up, for this reason it is best to leave a little top and bottom movement when cool to allow for this expansion. I Cant remember offhand what the actual measurement of movement is but I am sure someone will know.