<VV> driving an old car

[Tony Underwood]

At 05:48 PM 12/5/2009, kenpepke at juno.com wrote:

>Ken P had written:
>**********************************
>
>Tony Underwood <tony.underwood at cox.net> wrote:
>
>The response is that an early wheel bearing is gonna give you fair
>warning that it's ready to fail.   Regular maintenance and an eye for
>potential troubles will keep things in shape so you won't need to
>worry about them.
>
>*********************************
>
>Lost two rear wheel bearings over the years past ... 'fair warning' 
>from the first one [when it was a relatively new car] was stepping 
>on the gas and going nowhere then looking in the side rear view 
>mirror to see the tire / wheel outside the wheelhouse.  I had just 
>made an in town left hand turn so was going less than 15 MPH and was 
>able to just wait till it stopped on its own.  Second time was with 
>an older but low mileage 64. 'Fair warning' on that one was when the 
>wheelhouse flange cut the tire off the wheel.  That car stopped just 
>fine because I was not stupid enough to drive it without a dual 
>master cylinder ... fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me ;-)
>Ken P




During the many years I've owned my oldest Corvair, I've had the 
wheel bearings apart three times to inspect and repack.    Several of 
the rollers have some uneven plating on them but the race cage is 
solid and there's no evidence of overheating and the races are 
polished mirror-brite.

In all the years (29) and miles of Corvair driving and ownership I've 
had a couple of wheel bearings fail to the point that they got rough 
and noisy, but I've never had one come apart, nor have I ever seen 
one actually come apart in any 'Vair belonging to anybody I ever knew 
although at a show once I did see an axle that did have the remains 
of a bearing on it that did.   It was a burned and blue'd mangled 
mess that MUST have advertised its pending demise before it did try 
to wind up its housing onto the inner race which appeared to have 
tried to weld itself into a lump.

That was the only one I ever had a look at that did come apart.   Its 
inner race was still solidly (welded?) on the axle although the 
housing had come apart, leaving a fragment between the inner race and 
the axle flange.


If I had any suspicion, based on my own experience with Corvairs and 
cars in general, that there was anything about my 4-wheel fossil that 
might be dangerous I'd immediately attend to it.   That includes the 
rear wheel bearings.   I trust the car.   I know the car.   I'm 
familiar with all its little noises and habits and kinks and I 
understand what it does and why.

That's why I drive it as often as practical.




tony..