Great info Mark. Jef Portland, OR www.motozane.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:44:39 -0800 From: Mark Tamas <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [alfa] [Alfa] GTV-6 Rear Wheel Bearings I agree with Brian...I ended up replacing both rear wheel bearings on my Alfetta, because the first one didn't cure the noise. I fabricated my own retaining ring removal tool by modifying a 4WD axle nut tool (sorry, I forget which one...it had 6 teeth). If I had to do it over again, I would add a guide sleeve (which I believe the Alfa factory tool has) that matches the ID of the wheel bearing as the tool had a tendency to pop out of the ring when torque was applied, and they do require a lot of torque! As I remember, the hardest part of the whole job was getting the old bearings out once the retaining ring was removed. One important fact of which not all may be aware: the rear bearings in our transaxle cars are the same part as an Audi 5000 front wheel bearing. I forget what year range, but the VW part number was 443 407 625 . At the time, I worked at a parts store that specialized in VW parts and we had a pretty good Beck/Arnley cross reference. The front bearings are the same as VW part numbers too! Additionally, there is a VW special tool for removal and installation of these type of double-ball bearings. The Schley Products tool number is 89500 (which I have, available to loan), although there is another one specifically for Audi that is 94350. If I recall correctly, this was well over 10 years ago, the tool didn't work perfectly because of the shape of the DeDion housing. I didn't have it when I did the first one and had to use a big ass slide hammer to get the bearing out of the housing.... Mark Tamas Eugene, OR 1979 Sprint Veloce (x2) -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
