<VV> Early Rear Bearings

[Smitty]

 -----Original Message-----
> From: chuck mckinley <cmckinley313 at verizon.net>
> Subject: <VV> Rear wheel bearings
> > In the 19 years I've owned it, my 63 Monza has never been driven more
> than about 20 miles from home and back. Next week I'll be driving it
> (one way) about 140 miles to my daughter's college, where she'll drive
> it for the next 2-3 years. I'm not aware of any problems in any of its
> components, but I'm a little nervous about whether the rear wheel
> bearings might have a problem with 140 miles of highway speed (I-64 in
> Virginia). As far as I know, they're the original bearings on the car.
> The car has, very roughly, about 85,000 miles on the clock. My question
> to you is whether those tricky bearings give you any sort of early
> warning that they're about to fail, or whether they tend to give up the
> ghost catastrophically and leave you suddenly riding on the backing
> plates with no brakes at all. I've heard some spooky stories about this
> and need to know what to expect. In particular, is there anything at all
> I can check before I take this trip?
            Smitty Says;  Chuck, I, who have destroyed more Early rear 
bearings that any two other persons in CORSA, have one very strong 
recommendation to make.  No matter if you take your bearings apart and 
grease them or replace them with new, you should obtain a good axle and 
install a new freshly greased bearing on it.  Put it in the trunk and make 
sure she knows what it is for.  Getting a disabled Corvair off the highway 
and to a garage will cost you enough without adding the garage cost of 
hunting down a bearing and then maybe destroying it while installing it.
The failure mode of a bearing ranges from a dry swishing sound like a branch 
is caught under the car to a cyclic rumbling that can't be ignored.  The 
number of miles you specify and the age of the grease indicates that you are 
running on the early edge of the limit.  My second strong recommendation, 
even if you provide a spare axle, is to pull them both and install new ones. 
If not that then at least pull them and grease them is shown in the tech 
tips.  I hate to tell you this because I know it is expensive, but believe 
me I have learned how expensive it can get.  You do not want her to have to 
deal with this.  In my defense of destroying dozens of bearings I must 
mention that I did this while racking up over 400,000 miles on my wagon 
while pulling a camper with 150 lb tongue weight.   Don't forget to clean 
and pack the front bearings too.