Rear Wheel Bearing

[HMK]

Questions about replacement of the Carlton rear wheel bearing have been asked once or twice in the past.

Probably more to the point is not so much the wheel bearing that may need replacing (they will often last the life of the car), but more likely (as these cars get older) the brake back plate can become very corroded.

One of the worst things that can happen to the brake back plate is that the key holes that the hand brake pins lock into can corrode away causing the pin & spring to come out & jam in between the shoe & drum, also the shoes will slip sideways against the drum - not good

OK, if it's the forward of the two pins that comes out then it is possible to get to the rear of the plate to effect a repair. If it's the rear most of the pins then the brake back plate HAS to be un-bolted from the trailing arm assembly & removed to effect a repair (there are various bodges that can sometimes be done to 'get round' having to remove the back plate, but when it comes to those rear pins & holes, removing the whole back plate is the only answer).

The unfortunate thing is that the back plate cannot be removed without removing the wheel flange & wheel bearing first   The plate can be un-bolted & pulled away from its mounting by a small amount, but removal of the flange & shaft with bearing is the only way to remove the back plate completely.

The wheel bearing can be removed on the car OR the radius/trailing arm can be removed from the car & the bearing removed from the unit on the work bench.

The rear bearing flange nut is VERY, VERY TIGHT & it will also need to be tightened up to the SAME tightness on re-assembly!

You will need a 32mm socket & a good strong breaker bar..........A bit of advice: The ideal situation would be to use the strongest socket possible with a three quarter inch drive, but there is a problem - I've found that the wall thickness of these sockets is too thick to allow the socket to be able to fit into the recess in which the flange nut sits. My advice is to use a half inch drive 'HEX' socket (a hex socket will fit the nut a lot better than an ordinary socket as the 'land' on the nut is very shallow). Being a half inch drive socket, the wall thickness will be thin enough to fit into the well, although the drive & socket will not be far off breaking point with the force required.

I have not got any wheel bearings that need removing on my fleet at the moment but I have a couple of trailing arms with rotten brake back plates that I could do with refurbishing a bit.

The first pictures below shows a trailing arm complete with brake shoes, back plate, bearing & flanges that I removed from an 'H' reg Carlton saloon that I broke up due to, 1) It was rotten & 2) With a registration number HJB (Haynes Joke Book) Well, that couldn't be allowed to live on a Carlton






In this picture below, the brake shoes & associated parts have been removed as well as the back plate retaining bolts - you can see the corroded & enlarged shoe retaining pin hole -



So, you can clearly see both sides of the assembly & the corrosion of the brake back plate. The flange with the six bolt holes where the drive shaft would have been bolted onto & in the middle of this flange can be seen the well where the flange/bearing nut sits.

This next picture below shows the assembly gripped by the centre of the wheel flange in a strong vice & the drive shaft flange/wheel bearing nut with lock washer removed & to one side on the edge of the flange for clarity -



The unit will need to be gripped VERY tight & you 'may' need someone to sit on the bench that the vice is attached to to stop the whole lot going 'walk-abouts'

This next picture shows the unit still gripped by the wheel flange in the vice, but shows the rear of the brake back plate that previously had its four retaining bolts removed & has now dropped down & is resting on the back of the wheel flange. You can now clearly see the shoe retaining pin holes & how corroded they are & would in NO WAY be able to hold the pins, springs & shoes in place -



As these trailing arm assemblies are only for spares as standby units & NOT from any of the cars that I need to be using soon (I need to find a couple of Carlton Estate trailing arms for spares as they are different to the Saloon ones), I'm in no rush to finish this re-furb job at the moment. So that's it for the time being - I'll add more in a while, plus a description of the removal of the arm from the car if necessary...........If anyone else would like to add more in the meantime.........I believe 'Woody' described the job on a thread somewhere (do a search)

Edit: Here is a link to the above mentioned thread started by 'Land-Barge' in which 'Woody' described the procedure & 'Whippet' posted some Vauxhall info & drawings...........& we all chewed it over

http://totalcarlton.com/forums/index.php?topic=3694.0

OK, it's now a while, so I'll post some more pix & description

Now that the flange nut has been removed, you will need to 'pull' the flange off the bearing shaft splines. You will need the Vauxhall special tool shown in Whippets drawings (follow the above link), or you may be able to find a commercially available one that will fit. None of the pullers that I could lay my hands on were suitable, so you may have to do as I did - & make one Well, I didn't make it actually, I got a mate to make the one shown in the picture below in his lunch break at work from bits out of the scrap bin Thanks Ian

Not the clearest of pictures - balanced on an axle stand against the background of all that clutter on my bench hmmm, the rear fixing bolt is missing from the vice (& the other two are on their way - must sort that)

Bolt the puller to the flange using three of the drive shaft bolts (these are T50 torx, although some older ones could be 8mm allen, carefull examination is required). You will at this stage already have determined what the bolts are as you would have had to remove them to take the drive shafts off the flanges Note, that I have used piles of old washers & nuts to act as spacers so that the bolts don't go through too far as they might come up against the sides of the housing if they do I recommend using a good breaker bar to start the thing moving as in the picture below:-


Once it starts to 'come' change to the 'trusty ratchet' - as in picture below.........well, you don't want to break your ratchet - it's quite tight to start with............


Wind the bolt down & off comes the flange complete with puller - as below:-


More in  a while

[jonnybear]

Nice reading, good thread, looks like it would be easyier to remove the arm from the car ?

hope my back plates aint that corroded 

cheers jonny

[carlton_mad]

there is a "cheat fix" for this problem fords used to use a "washer" where as the pin went from the back thespring went on the front with the retainer holding the lot in place

if you put the washer behind the back plate (held with some no nails etc) and thus the pin has somthing to lock into!!

could even tack it in place with a welder if you were brave enough!!

[HMK]

Yes, Chris, I know about the 'cheats' (been there-done that ) That's what I meant when I referred to 'bodges' although I shouldn't really call it a bodge as it's really a good & lasting repair 'IF' you can pull it off. I've seen all sorts of methods using nuts & bolts with plates & washers etc. (& I'm not admitting to doing any of these myself, of course ) The front-most hole is easy as you can get to the back of it.......it's the rear-most hole that causes the problem as it's up against the casting of the bearing housing & there's no clearance behind it Luckily, it's nearly always the one that you can get to that goes, as it's exposed to road dirt & wet which the rear one isn't (except on the one in my pictures where, unusually, it was the awkward rear hole that had pulled through on each side)

The intention is to make up the metal round the holes once the plates are off & then re-make the holes - I wonder if you can still buy the back plates new from Vauxhall & how much? I ought to ask next time I visit the agent!

I probably should have called this thread 'Rear Wheel bearing & Brake back plate', but thought that was a bit long for the title bar.

BTW, the flange nut is a normal anti-clockwise to undo thread

PS, Nearly forgot - I've added the link to that other thread at the bottom of my first post above

[Pedro]

Nice thread, Mr. K!

My rear axle (2 litre jobbie) has had both backing plates rot through where the pins locate. Front ones have been done "The Ford Way", and the rears have had a tapped hole into the casting. Not ideal, but it's held it together for a few thousand miles, and I try not to use the handbrake much!

Now, my 3 litre rear axle is in bits in my garage, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you repair and replace yours, Mr. K - as I was going to do mine last winter, but...... I...... kinda didn't!
I haven't got the 32mm nut off yet, but have the means to do so.
I thought I might aswell fit new bearings and boots, clean and paint it and fit it along with my nice set of polybushes - including donuts.

Any idea of price/availability of said bearings, plus the backplates?

If I get new backplates, I'm going to see if it's possible to beef up the pin locating holes

[carlton_mad]

meega backplates?

see also cavalier,vectra,etc,etc

[Pedro]

meega backplates?

see also cavalier,vectra,etc,etc

Like your thinking, Mr. Mad!

Pretty sure the FWD stuff won't fit, but don't know for certain.....

[HMK]

Nice one, Chris So they ARE the same then - thought they might be

Ahh Pete Funny you should say about drilling through into the bearing housing casting & tapping a thread into the hole I had thought about that method myself, but as the pins have to 'rock' from side to side slightly as the shoes move on & off the drums, I decided that this would eventually break the long thin bolt off in the hole..........Like you say though, as long as you don't use the hand brake too much, it should last a fair while

One of the problems is that there is very little clearance between the outer head of the pin & the inside face of the revolving wheel flange. This means that if you are substituting the steady pin for something else (such as a long, thin bolt), then the head HAS to be very, very thin & flat. If it isn't, then to get a safe clearance from the wheel flange, you would have to over-compress the spring which could restrict the shoe movement........so a bit of careful choosing or modifying of any bolts (& nuts) is called for

[carlton_mad]

gm like fraud are fond of the parts bin ie if its in there use it if you look under the rear of your calibra you will see what i mean!!!! look especially at the rear of the hub assembly might be a plastic cap on it

the only real difference is the abs sensor !!!!

[Dave the Builder]

Vectra B 1.8 glsi has same back brakes as the 2.0 carlton, same shoes,pads,
only the handbrake cable is diffrent.
 I know this cus i did the brakes on the CDi one day and the vectra the next.

[Pedro]

Vectra B 1.8 glsi has same back brakes as the 2.0 carlton, same shoes,pads,
only the handbrake cable is diffrent.
 I know this cus i did the brakes on the CDi one day and the vectra the next.

In that case, all sounds good - as all Vectras are the same backplate, as are Carltons - I think!

[HMK]

I have just added some more pictures & description to my opening post at the start of this thread

[Pedro]

Excellent Mr. K!

Sounds like our lass's Meega needs a rear wheel bearing.

Sod it, the garage can do it................

[jonnybear]

lol @ pete

[HMK]

I was in the VX main agents yesterday - Carlton rear brake back plates are still available (in fact they actually had one in stock) about £65 a pair plus vat.