| [GMCnet] wheel lost our experience [message #60588] |
Sun, 18 October 2009 21:29  |
Curtisunlimited
Messages: 57
Registered: April 2004
Karma:
|
Member |
|
|
When a rear bearing fails, it will mushroom the washer over the axle nut
and the rear wheel with drum will go rolling off. If you step on the brakes,
as we all most likely do, the inner brake guts are apt to leave as the drum
is no longer there to retain the parts as the shoes are pushed out.
We lost our left middle wheel on our way back from the GMCMI rally in
Montgomery, TX a few years back. In our case it was not do to lack of
maintenance as we meticulously maintain our bearings to try and prevent this from
occurring. After getting/finding parts in Van Horn, TX (a place forever
burned in our memories) and having Jim K next day us a few parts, and returning
home, we took the damaged bearing parts to our local bearing house (part
of a national bearing chain) for diagnostics. It was their opinion that the
cause of our sudden failure - no tell tale rumblings, or excessive heat at
the prior fuel stop - was aging out of the bearings. They happened to be
New Departure bearings, which haven't been produced in many, many years. So
even though they looked good just 500 miles before they failed, they were a
disaster just waiting to happen!
Since that experience, we warn everyone to check their rear bearings and if
they are New Departure brand, CHANGE THEM, even if they appear in all ways
to be fine. Losing a wheel because one is too frugal to change out the
bearings is false economy. We also recommend carrying a spare axle nut and
washer, both are small, inexpensive parts to carry and are hard to find on the
road. Same applies to some of the inner brake hardware if one has changed
to 3" wide rear brake shoes.
Check your rear bearing manufacturer,
Bert and Fay Curtis
' 76 Glenbrook
_______________________________________________
GMCnet mailing list
List Information and Subscription Options:
http://temp.gmcnet.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gmclist
|
|
|
|
GMCforum
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
