<VV> Early Rear Bearings

[James Davis]

One thing about VV there are some old guys who have 45+ years of  
Corvair experience that give good advice; most of it from personal 
experience.  I currently have only one early model, the Rampside.  Even 
though I think it is meticulously maintained, would never get out of 
rollback range without a spare axle and the tools to install it.   I 
have never needed one in 35 years, but you never know.
Jim Davis

On 1/7/2012 10:45 AM, Smitty wrote:
>   -----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.