Re: How to check Rear Bearings

[Rodney Tidwell <rodneygt@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Schafer, Dan wrote:

> On my 85' Spider I may have my rear wheel bearings going bad.  I hear
> a
> metallic scraping sound coming from the rear during acceleration
> mostly in
> 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears.  Does not make a sound in neutral.
>
> Embarrassingly enough, I don't know how to check rear wheel bearings.
>
> How do you check to see if rear wheel bearings are bad?
>
> DS
> 91' 164L
> 85' Spider


Dan,

I recently changed the right rear bearing in an 84 spider.  The symptom
was a roar that grew louder as I increased speed (notable only with the
top up).  From the start, I felt the problem was the bearings but I
couldn't tell which - I could tell that the noise wasn't from the
driveshaft hanger bearing. I jacked up the rear of the car and spun the
tires but I was unable to definately determine which bearing was on the
way out.  When I pulled the axles and manipulated the bearings, one
turned smoothly and the other was somewhat rough.  To change the
bearing, I took the axle, new bearing and retainer to my local machine
shop - the retainer basically has to be cut off (a little over $20 to
the machine shop).

The above said, your problem may very well be a u-joint, the driveshaft
hanger bearing, a brake pad with no pad, etc. as I would expect you
would still note a noice in neutral.  Just have a look at everything
under there and try to localize the noise.

Good Luck,
Rodney G. Tidwell
McComb, MS

------------------------------