I've got rear bearing looseness in my 85' 300TD.
There is no noise (that I know of), but significant play on one side. So much play on that side that when I push hard on the top of the tire, the plate behind the wheel gets hit, making sound. The passenger side feels a little loose but nothing like the drivers side.

I checked the wheel. The bolts are tight, just replace the trailing arm bushings, which were really bad on the drivers side. I guess I couldn't tell the bearing was that bad with all the bushing play.

I'm gonna pull the axles out, brakes, and rotors and check the free spin; but my question is : how likely is it that my bearings just need tightening up? I've got the pin wrench and will get the dial gauge. I've had this car for about 20K miles and don't know when those bearings were done.

__________________
1985 300TD 1981 Scirocco 1.6D conv 1986 Golf 1.6D 2003 Golf TDI

You could try tightent it but you might get that dragging you were speaking of. \

Tightening it up will not tell you if something is worn inside. But, on the other hand taking it apart ususlly ruins the bearings.

So if you are willing you could tighen it up and set the end play with a dial indicator and if it works OK if it does work you would need to fix it right.

On Dormisons thread on how to change the wheel bearings do not use a punch or drift to beat the Hub out as the end of the inside end of the hub is thin and distorts and or expands easy.

Note that if the Hub gets damaged a new one is $350+ dollars and removing one at the junk yard is going to be harder then doing it at home.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

thanks for the tip on not hitting the hub!

If I tighten the collar nut some with the pin socket , will the adjacent grease seal get damaged?

__________________
1985 300TD 1981 Scirocco 1.6D conv 1986 Golf 1.6D 2003 Golf TDI

Before the Nut is turned you need to knock the dents out of the sheetmetal locking collar.
To the best of my recolection turning the nut should not harm the seal.
There is the Nut then the sheetmetal locking sort of cupped washer and then there is a cupped washer (the seal rides on the outside of that washer).

However, my only experience is removing the Hub that was good from a cracked Lower Control arm.

There should be so others that have more experience that can give better comments.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Here is dmorrison`s wheel bearing DIY.
Read through it to understand how it all goes together.

I would say that what you have are probably the original wheel bearings, and they probably need to be replaced.

PeachPartsWiki: Replacing the Rear Wheel Bearings


Getting harder to find the WIKI DIY. Pelican has their own How to do it when clicking on the TECH INFO tab at the top.
Had to dig around to find that WIKI.


Charlie

__________________
there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

I've "adjusted" a few non-drive wheel bearings and have noticed that once they started getting loose, any re-tightening was short lived. Only real solution was replacement.
Reading the diy pages is why I'm dreading the real job and trying to sneak around it ,
but I'm thinking your right and will have to dive in.

I never done any bearings that have a crush washer, or even used a dial indicator for setting bearing runout, so this will be interesting; fortunately I have a lot of tools and another car to drive in the meantime.
Dang those bearings are expensive!

__________________
1985 300TD 1981 Scirocco 1.6D conv 1986 Golf 1.6D 2003 Golf TDI

Several rears ago I rebuilt the whole rear suspension on the 85 300D.
I had the Sub frame, Trailing Arms, Diff axles etc... pulled out as one unit.
Then took it all apart to replace the TA Bushings, SF Bushings, Diff and painted the whole thing..
I found a 85 300CD with less miles, maybe 100K less, and swapped over the TA`s and Diff.
As I remember I thought I had a bearing starting to complain. So finding a lower mileage car did the trick for me.

Stretch (forum member) has a thread he did on replacing the bearings.
He did it with the arm off the car..........

Found it.
W123 rear wheel bearing removal help needed

Few more here on my search.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site+peachparts%2C+rear+wheel+bearing+replacement%2C+stretch


Charlie

__________________
there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

I had good luck swapping (due to cracks) a Trailing Arm with a used one. No Wheel Bearing issues with the used Trailing Arm or the what I think is the original Trailing Arm.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I just did my trailing arm bushing and the subframe mounts. They're in good shape.

Hearing some say you would rather swap out the control arm than change the bearing has me worried because ,for me, that job took several days; but I dropped the whole subframe. It's also a little tougher on the wagon with the hydraulic shock mess.

__________________
1985 300TD 1981 Scirocco 1.6D conv 1986 Golf 1.6D 2003 Golf TDI

Tried to spin the hub after the rotor was off. Didn't turn easily for a loose bearing, but smooth and noise free. Hard to detect the play with everything off but it was still there.

Thanks to the diy info getting the hub off was relatively painless. 4' cheater bar, then bolted an old rotor backwards on the hub and knocked it out.

Seems like water was getting in near the inner bearing but not in it , the grease looked ok.

__________________
1985 300TD 1981 Scirocco 1.6D conv 1986 Golf 1.6D 2003 Golf TDI

After cleaning up the old bearings and comparing them to the new FAG bearings, the old bearings were actually in good condition. There was some rust in the hub races but the grease was actually clean. Maybe a little tightening up would have been an easy fix instead of bearing replacement.


I just can't help but wonder how the previous (Koyo, Japan) bearing assembly got so loose on it's own, except that whoever installed them didn't tighten them enough. I don't think they were original, the grease wasn't green or even dark.

I probably could have cleaned and repacked the old bearings, got new seals $? , a nut from dealer ($8) , and tightened to spec.. But after all that adds up the kit isn't a whole lot more.
It would have been a lot less work though; crushing that new washer broke (2) nice 1/2" ratchets. I got the craftsman replaced w/ a rebuilt but the other was an off brand. I ended up getting a 1/2" ratcheting breaker bar to abuse from Harbor Freight so I could finish the job, it will make a nice lug wrench. Crushing the new washer would take forever w/o some kind of ratchet. Now I see why the MB special tool is 3/4" drive.

__________________
1985 300TD 1981 Scirocco 1.6D conv 1986 Golf 1.6D 2003 Golf TDI