Rear Wheel Bearings - Summer 2025

I've been driving the beetle for two summers knowing that something wasn't right with the right rear wheel as it was making a scraping noise which I have just been ignoring. I committed myself to fixing it once and for all before I started driving it this summer. Best laid plans of course...

My plan was to get to it in April or May so I could start driving it to the pier in the mornings for my walk. Shirl taught a Grand Rapids Community College during the 2024-2025 school year and I committed to driving her there 4 days a week. That took us through the end of May. Then we were committed to have the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus Leadership Committee over for a back yard barbeque on May 27th which meant we had to have all of the yard work and planting done in time for that so no VW work. Then the Honda Van had to go in for a new alternator. Then I had to do brakes and replace control arms on the Van. I did finally bring the Beetle home on the 22nd of June and parked it next to the garage.

 I put all the windows up and the roof. It's waterproof-ness is in question but I checked after the first rain and it seemed to be holding pretty good despite the fact that I have yet to finish replacing all the rubber around the windows and the roof.

The very next day (June 23) I got online and ordered two new sets of rear wheel bearing and two axel seal kits, assuming that was going to be the problem. I took the wheel off, pulled the brake drum and took a look around. I couldn't really decern any wobble or looseness of the stub axel so I thought maybe the bearings were OK but I figured I would replace them anyhow since that had been my plan and I already ordered them. It seemed like maybe the noise was coming from the brake pads rubbing on the drums. The drums were in pretty bad shape, very uneven and rough. 

I put things back together for the time being.

Saturday June 28th, 2025

The bearings showed up on the 26th of June but the seals were back ordered. Didn't get here until July 2nd. 

In the meantime I decided I might as well change the oil. I haven't changed it since I first got the engine running back in '23. Saturday June 28th I started out and realized that my oil draining container was full from the last couple of oil changes so I ran it up to the Recycle Center but I missed them by 5 minutes. They closed at 11:00, I thought they were open until 12:00. I was in the Jeep and it needed an oil change anyway so I took it up to Performance, had the oil changed and had them empty my container. You don't have to get an oil change to dump used oil there but I needed to do it any how. Next I stopped at AutoZone for Lucas Engine Oil Stop Leak and SAE 30 Diesel Oil. That is what Bruce, the guy who rebuilt the bus engine, told me to use. I got home, drained the oil and decided to take the sump plate off as the car has been leaking oil pretty well. I also cleaned up the bottom of the engine with degreaser. It was a real mess.

Turned out it and the strainer were pretty beat up. 

Logged into JBugs and ordered a new strainer, Sump Plate, Oil Change Gasket Kit and a set of Oil Sump Plate Cap Nuts.

Monday July 1st, 2025

After looking at the brake drum I realized that it was in really bad shape. I think that the scraping I was hearing was the very irregular surface of the drum itself rubbing on the new brake pads so I ordered two new ones. $60 each.

Thursday July 3rd, 2025

With all the bearings and seals in hand I prepared to start the job. I was a bit worried about whether the car would stay dry and I didn't want to work in the sun so I set up the camping canopy around it. 

I Jacked up the right rear, took the tire off, pulled the drum off, took the brakes apart. 

Next step was to take the CV Joint off the stub axle. I did this on the Bus so I assumed that I had the right tool but when I tried what I thought I had used, it slipped. I had been watching a YouTube video by Heidi and Franny. Good video (https://youtu.be/9ah8dLN15Sg?si=4CcqSpO3wT-olCcx). She mentioned that you really need an 8 mm 12 point spline drive. I didn't want to chance stripping any of the bolts so I ran up to AutoZone. Had to buy a full set but it was only about 20 bucks so no biggie. Came back and after a good application of Free-All and cleaning out the heads with a toothbrush,  I was able to break them all free.

In my memory from doing it on the Bus and from the video and also from the Idiot book, the CV Joint should have just easily come apart but this one didn't. Crap. I sprayed more Free-All and then gave it a few taps with a ball peen hammer. No Joy. I got a little more aggressive and whacked it some more, turning the stub axle to get it from all sides. I got a couple of scrap metal pieces to use as a spacer so I could give it a better whack on the CV Joint only but still no luck. I whacked it pretty good. I went back to the video to convince myself that it should just come apart and looked in the idiot book but no mention of having to do any thing special. I texted Frank. He suggested heat but I was afraid of damaging the rubber boot on the CV Joint. I put more Free-All and gave it a rest.

Saturday July 5th, 2025

More texting with Frank, more Free-All, more hammering. I put the brake drum back on, engaged with the splines, put a lug bolt into the drum and used a breaker bar (with the car in gear) to put aws much radial pressure on it as I could. Still no joy.

Monday July 7th, 2025

I texted Steve Shelly to explain the situation and ask if I was missing something. He assured me that they should come apart but that he has seen them be stubborn. He suggesting using a chisel, give a good vertical hit on the joint between the two, enough to make a slight divot, then use the chisel at an angle, targeting the divot and give it as many whacks as needed.  

That evening, I got a chance to give it a try.

It worked like a charm! Steve is so smart!

I bagged up the CV Joint to keep it clean The grease looks pretty darn nasty though so I'm going to have to clean that out and put new grease in.

Tuesday July 8th, 2025

I started by bungee cording the CV Joint up out of the way.

Next step was to remove the front bearing cover. Four bolts. Then tap the stub axle out. There were spacers on both sides outside of the bearings. The one on the back was very much stuck on the stub axle and wouldn't budge. Just like the CV Joint. I didn't bother to do anything with it. Figured it could be dealt with later. 

Next, the rear seal. This was a little bit scary because it did not come out easy and having not done it I didn't know what to expect. I had ordered a seal puller off of Amazon but it didn't come with any instructions. Nor did the idiot book. In the video it came out pretty easily. I didn't realize that there was a steel ring embedded in the rubber seal. I thought it was all rubber and expected it to be more flexible. The rubber started coming apart as I pulled harder and harder on the seal puller. I was once again afraid I might damage something. Turns out I shouldn't have hesitated. It really needed several really hard pulls. I got up at point and looked at the new seal to figure out what it was like and realized that the metal thing I was afraid of damaging was embedded in the seal. A few good hard pulls and eventually it came out. Pretty tore up though.

The next step is to remove that large circlip that was behind the seal. I had also ordered a decent set of circlip pliers recommended by the You Tube video so I figured I was in good stead. I was able to get the pliers into the holes in the clip but it was pretty difficult to pull the ends together. I realized that the slot that the clip sets in was pretty much glommed together just like the CV Joint and the stub axle. Lots of Free-All was applied. I also used a screw driver to drive the ends around the slot to work in some Free-All and loosen things up. Took some doing. I probably spent 20-30 minutes before I was able to get it out. Perseverance.

With those to retaining objects out of the way I could now tap the rear bearing out from the front. I used an appropriate sized socket on an extension that fit inside the front bearing but would contact the rear bearing and tapped it out.

It didn't take too much effort and the bearing dropped out of the back.

Next was to remove the inner spacer which was covered with grease. Then I used another appropriate sized socket (I think it was 36mm, a big one) and tapped the front bearing out from the back. 

Now it was time to clean out the nasty old grease on the inside. Yuck! At this point I did realize that the bearings probably were not in all that great of shape. If nothing else, the grease really needs replacing. It seemed pretty tired.

Yuck!!!

Cleaned up all the parts and organized them.

Notice that the rear spacer is still attached to the stub axle.

I still had some time left so I put the gaskets and sump strainer on, and the sump plate with the new acorn nuts and torqued them down to 5 ft lbs. 

 

Thursday July 10th, 2025

After getting this far along in this job I decided that as long as I have everything torn apart I should repair the hand brake, put new cables in and new backing plates. Needed a new handle kit and boot to cover it. Might as well. I went on line and ordered the whole set on JBugs. It was finally delivered on July 17th.

Saturday July 19th, 2025

Sometime after this my back started getting stiff. Whenever I would get up from the car or sitting for any length of time it would be stiff and I had to walk around to free it up and make myself stand up straight. Somewhere around Tuesday the 15th it started hurting and quickly got worse. I had a WMCW concert on Wednesday and could only play by slouching. I was in real pain and it wasn't getting any better. Needless to say I got nothing done. Went to the doctors on Friday and got steroids and muscle relaxers. Things started to feel better Saturday afternoon, the steroids doing there job.

I figured I could do a little work without risking annoying my back.  First I took a look at the stub axle and the inner spacer that was stuck on it. I used a putty knife and a small ball peen hammer to try and separate the two and made some progress.

When the gap was wide enough I used the chisel to move it more but it never did free up. Time to spray more Free-All.

I also wanted to remove the old backing plate so I could maybe tomorrow pull the hand brake cable out after disconnecting it from the handle. To do so, I had to remove the brake caliper from the backing plate which meant disconnecting it from the brake line which of course meant losing some brake fluid. I removed the bleeder valve and then the brake line and removed the caliper from the backing plate. 

I had to hook up a tube because the brake fluid continued to drip out. I should have temporarily hooked it back up the caliper to keep it from dripping but I didn't. Maybe tomorrow. 

Frank is coming by for a while and I'm hoping we can pull the brake cable out.

Sunday July 20th, 2025

Frank came by a little after noon and I showed him what I had done to date pulling apart the bearings. He was familiar with it as we had texted a lot about the issues I had. Then we set about trying to disconnect the hand brake cable from the old brake backing plate. It was all crudded over. I had to do some scraping and cleaning to find that the cable is connected to the plate via a small bracket held to the plate with a bolt. It took some Blaster and elbow grease to get the 13mm bolt free. Then it took additional work to actually get the bracket out of the receptacle in the plate. At first I thought that the bracket was connected to the cable but looking at the new cable , which didn't have one, I realized it was a separate piece and we needed to reuse the original one. Once again the two were stuck together with crud. Finally I got them separated. While I took the bracket to the wire wheel, Frank took a look at my dash to compare it to his as he needs to pull his speedometer out to try and get the 1s and 10s digits to move on his odometer. Turns out our dashes and how you get to the speedo are quite different.

Once I had the bracket and the bolt cleaned up we had to figure out how it went back together with the new cable and plate. This picture is the back of the backing plate.

The old cable was connected to the frame of the wheel support with a plastic clip that obviously keeps the cable from rubbing against the support. It just pries out of a hole in the support. 

Then we had to pull the cable out from the tube that leads it up to the tunnel only it was stuck in the hand brake handle. I had to remove the handle so we could pull the cable out.

Here is the cable connected to the backing plate with the plate in place showing how it goes into the bracket.

Here is a better shot.

Mission accomplished! We picked up the tools and parts and put things way, changed out of our work clothes and went to the Blue Porch for a couple of smash burgers. Afterwards we came back to the house, picked up the keys to the M&M unit and drove over there to see the Bus. Frank hadn't seen it since I took all of the camping gear out of it. I should have thought to take the Jeep keys with me and I could have jump started it and let it ran for a bit. Frank took a few pictures and then we headed back to the house and Frank headed for home. The end of a fun day of VW work. He has given me inspiration to get this job done as soon as my back gets better. Can't wait to get the Bug back on the road! 

Monday July 21, 2025

I wanted to plug that plastic clip back into the support before I forgot and left it dangling as it is difficult to see up under there. Here it is part way in...

And here it is all the way in.

Tuesday July 22nd, 2025

I had an opportunity to start cleaning parts and I started with the axle bearing cap. After I started cleaning it up on the wire wheel I realized I had never taken the outer seal out of it. I realized that the video I have been watching about this whole wheel bearing job did the same thing. They never showed them removing it so I never did it either. I put the cap in my Jaw Horse and tried tapping it out with a large socket that fit just inside the seal. Turns out that only contacted the outer, rubber part of the seal and turned it inside out. It wasn't hard to tear that part out but that left the rubber covered metal part in tact. As a matter of fact, the seal is up against a metal flange that runs around the inside of the cap so it isn't possible to get the seal puller in to pull it out because you can't get anything between the seal and the flange. 

I studied the new seal again tried to determine for sure that the flange was a part of the cap and not a part of the seal and of course it was. So there is no real way to get any purchase on the seal to pull it out. I tried tried clamping a small vise grip onto the metal edge in the front and trying to leverage it out but that jut chewed up the metal and I got nowhere. I tried chiseling it along the edge. No joy. 

I eventually gave up, went on line and ordered two new Axel Bearing Caps from JBugs for $40. The whole back axles are going to be new! (Except the bolts)

Sunday July 27th, 2025

I had a chance to do some more parts clean up with the wire wheel. I started with the bolts and spacers from the CV Joint.

Here you can see the difference between the cleaned up spacer on the right and the other two. Big improvement!

I also cleaned up the bolts and washers for the bearing cap. The wavey washers were in pretty bad shape so next time I was at Ace I picked up a new set of washers and wavey washers to replace them all.

I got curious about the bearing cap and outer seal so I took it downstairs, put it in the vise and tried to cut the seal out of the cap. Of course I couldn't cut through it without cutting into the cap but it was going in the garbage anyway.

Once I cut through the seal it was pretty easy to pry out.

Notice that there was some rust holding it in but I suspect it was really the radial force of the seal against the rim that kept it in place. There was no way to get the tool behind it to get it out because of the steel ridge that it was pushed up against. In retrospect, I wonder if I could have drilled some small holes in the edge of the seal and screwed screws into them to pull the seal out. More trouble than it is worth with new caps costing $20 each. Just buy new ones and through the old ones out. 

Wednesday August 6th, 2025

I took about 20 minutes and packed the bearings with grease and wrapped them up. Frank has agreed to come again this Sunday and help out.

Sunday came around and Frank showed up on a very hot and humid afternoon. Luckily there was a bit of a breeze so it wasn't horrible weather wise but definitely uncomfortable. Started out by putting the inner bearing in after greasing everything up good so things would slide in relatively easily (yeah, right). It took some persuading with the rubber mallet and a large socket the fit inside the housing and rested on the outer rim of the bearing. The inner bearing is the ball bearing where as the outer bearing is a roller bearing. Following the advice of the video I have been watching I put the side with the markings on the rim to the outside where you can see them (looking from under the car). Next I put the snap ring in place that holds the bearing in place. It went in pretty easy but I did have to tap it in a few places to get it to snap into the grove. Next I tapped the inner seal into place. There was some question as to whether it was all the way in as there was a gap between it and the snap ring that seemed bigger than the width of the snap ring but maybe not. The gap does give you the ability to get the seal pry tool behind the seal to pull it out so that is a good thing.

 With that done we packed the inner chamber with grease and put the long spacer inside. Next we tapped in the outer bearing this one went in with minimal tapping with the rubber mallet.

Then there was a rubber O-ring, dust seal that went around the edge of the bearing structure and against the baking plate (not in the above picture). The outer seal then went into the back of the new cap. Didn't get a picture of that either. With some grease, it pushed in pretty easily. Hard to believe since the old one wouldn't come out. Finally the cap went on and the four bolts went in to hold it in place.

I should have gotten a shot before I put all the brake parts back together but I didn't. Above is the whole thing put back together. Those stupid mechanisms that hold the shoes against the backing plate were just as big of a pain in the ass as they always are but I finally had to use a needle nose vise grip to hold the pin in place behind the shoe so the pin would rotate, then hold the round plate in a pair of big vice grips to push it on the pin and rotate it 90 degrees. Can't believe they never came up with a better way to do that.

After adjusting the star adjusters all the way in and moving the shoes around to get them centered, we got the drum on, tightened down the castle nut and put the new cotter pin in place. Beauty!

Frank wanted to climb under and take a look at the clutch cable where it connects to the gear box because his is adjusted all the way out but it acts like it needs to be out further, It's as if his cable is too short. Being a '99 Mexican Beetle its hard to find stats on how long of a cable he should have. Anyway, he noticed that mine is right in the middle of the threaded part of the cable while his is all the way to the end.

Put the wheel back on and tightened the lug nut down good and tight and set the car back down on the ground.

We got cleaned up, Shirl got home and we grilled corn and burgers with potato salad, water melon, tomatoes and other stuff then sent him home with peaches, tomatoes and blueberry pie.

It sure is great having Frank along to help out. He kept me from getting off task and from doing anything stupid. Always good to have a second set of eyes an hands. What a great friend.

Monday August 11th, 2025

Fresh off of getting the right rear wheel done, I was anxious to get ready to start on the left. That required me putting oil back in so I could start the engine and then turning the bug around so we can get to the left side.

One quart of Lucas Engine Oil Stop Leak and 1.5 to 2 quarts of Diesel oil as prescribed by Brian, the guy who rebuilt the engine. Let it run a bit, checked the level and add diesel oil until its in the middle of the dip stick lines.

Turned it around and its all ready to start on the driver's side!

Tuesday August 12th, 2025

I had a little free time so I jacked the bug up and got a jack stand under it and pulled the wheel off.

I then pulled the cotter pin and removed the castle nut.

Then I pulled the brake drum off.

That's all I had time for.

Saturday August 16th, 2025

Shirl had to go into Blue Lake for several hours so I set about getting this second wheel torn down as far as I could. First step was to take the brake pads and springs off.

Then I pulled off the brake caliper and the bearing cap so I could get the old backing plate off.

Of course I had to get the hand brake cable disconnected. I forgot for a bit that you have to remove the bolt from behind to remove the bracket. I kept trying to loosen the nut that is welded to the plate. I was only stupid for a minute or two.

When I pulled the brake cable out of the tunnel I found out why the hand brake was not working. The cable was all jinked up.

After I removed the backing plate, it was time to crawl under the car and start removing the CV Joint bolts. That is always fun as the heads get full of crud and have to be cleaned out before the 12 point driver can be inserted. And you have to push the rubber boot out of the way to get to the bolt heads. Because of the angle of the drive shaft, you can only access the bolts at the bottom. You have to put the car in gear so the axle wont turn, climb under, loosen the bottom two bolts, then get up and take the car out of gear, rotate the stub axel so the next two bolts are at the bottom, put the car back in gear, climb back under, loosen those two bolts then repeat it all again to get the last two bolts. Much easier when Frank is here to help. He is coming tomorrow.

Again, like the right side, the CV Joint and the stub axle were glombed together. This time though it only took a few whacks with the rubber mallet to separate them.

Ta-Da

I wrapped the CV Joint in a plastic bag and bongeed it up out of the way. Then I pulled out the stub axle. It took a bit of tapping with the rubber mallet but it came out pretty easily.

Then I removed the big circlip that holds the bearing in place. This was just as difficult as on the other side - until I found that I needed to pull the ends together with the pliers and then get a small screwdriver tip underneath the tab with the hole in it on the clip and pry it away from the slot and work it all around the clip. 

Then I tapped the inner bearing and the outer bearing out and cleaned it all up.

Sunday August 17th 2025

Frank came over again and helped me put things back together. First step was to pack the bearings with grease.

Then we tapped the inner bearing in place from behind using a large socket, put the circlip in to hold it in place, put the inner seal in place also from behind, then put the stub axel in and tapped it through. Next was the outer bearing, clamping the back of it to the housing with a C clamp so I could tap the bearing down onto the stub axle from the front. Then the hand brake cable went in and came through the backing plate. probably should have done that before putting the backing plate on as it was difficult to get the bolt and the bracket that holds the cable to the backing plate all lined up so you can start the bolt. It took some futsing but I got it eventually.

Next was the dust seal followed by the paper gasket and the bearing cap and bolted it in place. Finally put the outer seal and the outer spacer in place.

Now the brake pads get installed. Notice the small needle nosed vise grip used to hold the brake retaining pin in place so it doesn't rotate when you are trying to put the retaining clip on over the spring. There is no way to hold it still from behind with your finger. Never works for me. I use the large vise to hold the retaining clip onto the pin.

Ta Da! Brake pads installed.

Next we adjusted the stars out a bit and repeatedly placed the brake drum on until the pads were just barely touching the drum.

Next was the messy part. No pictures of this but I was really glad to have Frank around to help me bleed the brakes all the way around. I had some leakage on the right rear while we were bleeding the left rear because I did not get the bleeder valve tightened down when I put that back together. Other than that, it went pretty straight forward. Put the tire back on and took out the jack stand. We cleaned up and called it a day and grilled corn and burgers with fresh tomatoes, melon, cucumbers and peaches.

Monday August 18th, 2025

Shirl had her first Symphony Chorus rehearsal of the season so I had the evening to finish some things up on the bug. It rained so I pulled the bug into the garage.

I jacked up the right side because I had left the star adjusters turned all the way in and its much easier to pull the wheel and the drum and get the pads adjusted as close as possible by pulling the drum on and off until the pads are close. It also helps me to visualize what way I have to adjust the stars from behind through the little adjusting holes when I have the drum back on. Of course once I get underneath I forget and have to guess and watch carefully through the brake inspection hole. Anyway, I adjusted both rear brakes. I was missing some of the little rubber plugs for the holes that keep the water and dirt out of the drums so I made a note to order some more along with the rubber caps for the bleeder valves, some of which are missing.

Notice how close the brake pad is to the drum through the brake inspection hole.

Tuesday August 19, 2025

I connected up the hand brake handle, connected the hand brake cables to it and adjusted them so the hand brake works for the first time since I bought the darn thing!

Whomever previously owned the bug had fashioned a handle for the temperature lever. Not sure why since the heater tubes are all full of expanding foam and couldn't deliver heat if they wanted to. The obviously didn't have access to a place like JBugs where you can easily order the a new little orange knob. I'll add that to the order.

The new chrome lever that I ordered does not have an obvious way to attach the cables to it for some reason. I suppose that you could modify some washers to some what work but it seemed jinky. I decided to just use the original, clean it up and paint it replace the push button and its spring with those from the new handle and call it good. I job for another day. I figure I was in good enough shape that I could drive it to the pier for my morning walk next time I get a chance to do so.

Wednesday August 20th 2025

I drove the bug to the pier for my morning walk. The big test for the brakes. The brakes worked fine but when I went around corners they made scraping sounds! Also, the engine was dogging when I was low in a gear or when I down shifted. Its never done that before. It has always run great ever since I put the new carburetor back in the beginning. I'm disappointed in that. spent some time texting with Frank about that. He counseled me to give it some time. I took his advice but I thought about the two fuel filters I have, one before the fuel pump and the other after, and how dirty they are. Maybe they are impeding the flow of fuel so I figured I should stop by AutoZone next time I have a chance and buy a couple of new ones.

Sunday August 25th, 2025

I bought a couple new fuel filters a few days ago and finally got around to replacing the old ones. Here is a good view of just how dirty they were, a new one next to an old one!

I was so smart when I installed the original filters and the fuel regulator - I put a shut off valve on the line coming from the tank for just this purpose. I can shut it off and reduce the amount of gas I have to catch when I remove the old filters. It only took a few minutes to loosen the clamps and put the new filters in place and then tighten the clamps back up.

Monday August 25th, 2025

I drove the bug to the pier again for my morning walk and it ran great until it warmed up and then the problem came back. There was a little less brake noise around corners though. I really have no idea what is causing that.

Tuesday August 26th, 2025

I drove the bug up to AutoZone and bought some Gumout. Came back home, took the air cleaner off, started it up and gave it a few good sprays of Gumout down the carburetor. Didn't seem to make any difference. I took a look at the vacuum lines going to the carburetor and they all looked fine. There is one hose that connects the oil filler neck with the air cleaner though that was pretty severely split.

I taped it up with duct tape and put it back in place. This isn't really any type of vacuum hose that needs to be air tight, it just collects gasses out of the crankcase and sends them up into the air cleaner and into the carb to be burned, as far as I know.

Wednesday August 27th, 2025

Shirl had a meeting at the Symphony office so I grabbed a knuckle sandwich at Lakeside and took it to the beach in the bug and ate my lunch there. Brakes were practically noiseless but the engine bogging was still there, maybe not as bad but still not the way I want it.