Axle seal

[Corvair1]

Hi fellows. spent some time in the hospital so I haven't had much time to play around on the net. I'm at home now an playing around with my vair. One of my seals on my axle is leaking and I'm wondering if i is a good idea to change bearings as well.

[bbodie52]

I'm assuming you are talking about the rear axle bearing assemblies on your Late Model Corvair?

http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/catalog ... w_page=167


NOTICE: Price includes core value: $99.00. You will be issued a refund of $99.00 when you return the used part.

Weight: 19 lbs 0 oz
Catalog Pages(s): 167
Price: $ 266.40

The video below illustrates the procedures for removing the rear axle bearing assembly and brake backing plate. The video shows most of the procedure, but skips disconnecting the half shafts and universal joints, since the powertrain in the car used in this video has already been removed. It also displays using an impact wrench and puller to remove the yoke. However, this does not have to be done, because, as shown in the illustration below the video, the hole in the suspension arm is shaped to permit the yoke to pass through. To remove the assembly, you must remove all of the brake drum and brake components, detach the parking brake cable from the brake backing plate, remove the four nuts and lock washers, and just pull the whole assembly out of the suspension arm. Then just pack the whole thing up and ship it off to Clark's for an overhaul and rebuild.

These rear axle bearing assemblies are packed, sealed and properly set up at the factory, and then often neglected for decades. Whatever grease is in the bearings ages gracefully for many years, until the bearing fails and starts to make noise (often at a bad time). I had one fail during a cross-country run on the way from Lake Tahoe, California to New Jersey, where I was going to ship the Corsa coupe to Bremerhaven, Germany. It failed after a long drive with my wife and kids across Nevada and Utah, and I discovered the squeak in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We would have been stranded, but this happened in 1981 and I managed to find a junk yard in Cheyenne that actually had a LM Corvair with a serviceable rear wheel bearing assembly ready for transplant! The other failure occurred in the winter in Germany on my 1965 Corsa convertible. The car sat in the snow for a few weeks at Kapaun Air Station, Germany while my father shipped a serviceable unit to me from California via USPS.

If you have a seal that is leaking grease, you might assume that dirt is also making its way past the seal and into the bearing assembly. These axle assemblies must be set up correctly with proper internal clearances using shims, a dial indicator, etc. Experience helps, and I would recommend that you let Clark's do the dirty work and do it right, so that the bearing assembly is fully ready to be neglected for another decade or so. You also might consider that the bearing on the other side probably has been in service for a similar period of time, is also getting old, and may also fail. Consider having them both overhauled at the same time. Also be sure to service the universal joints while you have the half shafts out, since the universal joints also get neglected for long periods of time (especially if they don't have Zerk fittings to allow them to be greased periodically).

TRIVIA: The patent for the Zerk fitting was granted to Oscar U. Zerk in January 1929.