Bearings don't fit on axle stub!?!

[dangerous_D]

Car is 1981 Jetta Diesel Special Edition (w A/C) 1.6 NA with 5-speed manual trans.

I got a flat tire the other day, so I popped on the spare and threw the wheel with the flat in the trunk.  The "spare" looks like it came with the car in 1981.  It has a crispy looking texture and about 2/32" of tread.  That made me nervous so I took the flat for repair the next day.  The shop lifted the car to install the wheel and when her tires left the ground I heard the mechanic say, "Oh my god!" which is typically not a good sign.  Long story short, the rear wheels had a fair amount of axial play and the shop said the rear bearings needed to be replaced and quoted something like $250.  The mechanic's exact words were, "Your rear wheels could fall off at any time."  I drove home and researched and decided to do the job myself. 

I ordered ALL new parts: drums, shoes, wheel cylinders, stub axles, and bearings.  The driver side installation went very well.  The passenger side turned into a angry cursing festival.  I replaced the cylinder and spindle and rebuilt the shoes and mounted them.  I tried to put the new drum on the spindle but it would NOT seat.  I used a decent amount of grease and I tried to coax the drum on by moving it around but it was not happening.  After a brief struggle I took the drum off to evaluate the situation.  The inner bearing did not come off with the drum, rather it decided to stay with its friend Mr Spindle.  I then tried to get the inner bearing to slide off the spindle, but it was stuck.  It was not crooked or jammed on the axle stub or anything and it was ~1" from the base of the spindle where it is supposed to seat.  I eventually got it off with a hammer but the bearing was no longer usable.  I put the old axle stub back on the car and mounted the old drum so I could put the car back on the ground.  I will not be driving it until I get this issue sorted.

My initial thought was that the axle stub was out of spec because the driver side didn't have this problem.  Since they're cheap I ordered a new spindle with a new bearing kit.  They arrived in the mail yesterday.  Off the car I tried the new bearing on the new spindle and it had the same problem!  Then I tried the new bearing on the old axle stub and it had the same problem.  Then I tried the old bearing (from the driver side) on the old axle stub (passenger side) and it had the same problem.  The outer bearing shows similar behavior, namely it gets "stuck" on the spindle before it even clears the threads for the wheel nut. 

I'm looking for some guidance here.  Have others experienced this problem?  What do I do to remedy it?  Do I tap the bearings onto their seats (carefully) with a hammer?  Do I take some fine sandpaper to the axle stubs?  What's really perplexing is that the driver side did not have this problem.

Thanks in advance!

[smutts]

You have my sympathies. I am not a fan of how VW make their stub axles out of metallic butter. But it does sound like some factory somewhere it was 4:57pm friday.

[dangerous_D]

Well, 2 of the 3 new axle stubs I've purchased have this too-tight fit with the bearings, so I doubt they're out of spec.  Maybe the spec itself is crappy, but that's unlikely too.  In any case someone else must have experienced the same problem.

Do I sand down the spindle so the bearings slide on and off easily or do I carefully tap the bearings into their seats?

[Doug]

You could try warming the bearing with a heat source like a heat gun, not a torch! till it is hot to touch then slip it over the spindle which you would have had chilling by placing an ice pack on. This works for all sorts of interference fit situations. If you need more force then use a piece of pipe that will contact the inner race, the one that is an interference fit to the axle. Yes, I have had to sometimes dress a spindle with a file to get the bearing to fit. Just work slowly taking off sparingly little as possible while checking the fit with the bearing.

[dangerous_D]

Thank you!  I'll give that a try. 

[dangerous_D]

If that doesn't work I'll just order 4 new axle stubs hoping that one of them will fit without shenanigans.   

[macka]

If that doesn't work I'll just order 4 new axle stubs hoping that one of them will fit without shenanigans.   

this is the better route IMO, interference fitting the bearings is not good practice. Too many things can happen to cause catastrophic failure and damage to the car.

[theman53]

I would use a shop roll of sandpaper/emery cloth and get all the way around the stub. Make sure it is still an interference fit as you don't want the inside of the bearing rolling at all.
Have you checked that the parts store didn't give you the wrong bearings, or stubs? I have gotten brakes from advanced before for my GTI and the pads were a different # than for my jetta, but still the same thickness when they needed to be about half. I knew they were wrong and we ended up getting a part# that wasn't even for the GTI.

[dangerous_D]

Thanks for your input!  I'll let you know how everything turns out.

[dangerous_D]

These are FAG bearings and Meyle stubs from MJM.  I'm 99.9% sure they are the correct parts for my car.

[Peter]

similar situation happened to me...the old bearing will fit, but the new one will not...I had to return the bearing and ordered up another new one from a different company

[dangerous_D]

In my case it turned out to be mainly an alignment issue.  If I attempted to push the bearing on and it wasn't perfectly aligned with the spindle it would catch.  I ended up polishing the stub a tad with scotch brite.  It may or may not have made a difference- after polishing the fit was still tight but when it was all lubed up I went slow and it seated perfectly. 

As for the outer bearing, there were burrs on the edges of the machined notch on the tip of the spindle.  They appeared to hinder bearing installation.  I filed those off and the bearing went on without much of a struggle.  I'm a little surprised burrs like that make it through Meyle quality control...

[Rabbit TD]

I would use a shop roll of sandpaper/emery cloth and get all the way around the stub. Make sure it is still an interference fit as you don't want the inside of the bearing rolling at all.
Have you checked that the parts store didn't give you the wrong bearings, or stubs? I have gotten brakes from advanced before for my GTI and the pads were a different # than for my jetta, but still the same thickness when they needed to be about half. I knew they were wrong and we ended up getting a part# that wasn't even for the GTI.

I'd just sand it too with some good paper or cloth with a peice shaped like a belt pulling it back and forth around the surface till you get it right.  You should get yourself an inexpensive Vernier type micrometer if you don't already have one and measure the ID of the bearing first then the shaft to get an idea of how much you have to take off.  Some wet or dry 180 will work pretty good with some oil.  It don't have to look like chrome, the bearing does the real work.  If you took it to a machine shop that's all they would do  because that's all that's needed.

[dangerous_D]

I have a micrometer and I absolutely should have mic-ed the stub and the bearings.  In fact, I don't know why I didn't.

Has anyone measured the stub and the bearings?  I'm interested to know the clearance between the bearings and the spindle?  I haven't yet disposed of my old spindle/bearings, I'll try to find the time to measure them before I toss them out.

[clbanman]

I can't comment on clearances for automotive bearings, but we use bearings with an ID of between 6 and 16 inches.   I questioned our Timken rep because I had always thought that a bearing should be snug on an axle, and was told that these should not be an interference fit.   We have clearances between .002"-.006".   Those numbers obviously would be lower for the smaller automotive application.   As previously mentioned, care has to be taken to ensure the bearing is installed evenly before any pounding goes on.   I have also run into issues where a PO has used something similar to a pipe wrench or vise grips on the stub axle and damaged the OD of the axle and that obviously creates issues.