Last year I heard some strange sounds coming from the rear of my buggy, and it also developed a severe trans oil leak from the end of an axle. Today I finally got around to pulling things apart to see what was wrong. What you see is the rear drive axle sticking out of the axle tube. Anyone notice anything here that might be considered bad??? :x
Actually AJ, that stamp pretty clearly shows "GERMANY"... And this part would have been made in 1965, so I'd guess they were decent quality. What you see there... is a catastrophic failure. Both in parts, and by the mechanic. The rear bearing set up for VW bugs doesn't really have a "good" set of pictorial instructions anymore. When I reassembled this during installation of the disc brakes I didn't really question the parts used by the previous owner, and they seemed to go back together correctly. But now I wonder if he used the correct spacers...
Oh yeah the drive axle is not centered in the Drive axle tube....something failed that's for sure. That's drive axle 101 isn't it?
it's not good for sure Terry. Notice all the bearings are in the bottom of the race? They should be evenly spaced around the circumference to distribute load. Basically the bearing assembly "grenaded", and when it did pieces of metal took out the oil seal that's in the end of the hub. Thus... I had trans-axle oil dumping out all over the place. The buggy is out of commission for a while.