Second Oil Seal Fitted

Despite having to fix an overflowing cold water tank I still managed to get an hour of work done on the beetle. This time I was fitting the new wheel bearing, brake back plate and oil seal. On the other side of the car the wheel bearing simply slid into place. However on this side it stuck before getting to the end of the splines. Judging from the manuals this isn't unusual. The solution is to drift it on with a suitable pipe or a punch. I opted for the latter and after 10 minutes solid tapping the bearing was seated. The next goes a shim washer and small o-ring. Then the back plate and paper gasket followed by the large o-ring. Finally the outer spacer is oiled and fitted to the oil seal (which had already been tapped into the housing) before the housing is bolted on. Here's the finished article.

The next task is to replace the oil gaiters on the swing axles as these have perished and torn. Once that job has been completed the rear axle should be oil tight!

Doing the Unstuck

It may seem like I have forgotten all about this restoration blog but that is not true. The problem has been lack of progress and spare time. However this weekend I managed to spend a few hours in the garage. The plan was to remove the rear wheel bearing. Earlier attempts had involved hammering, heat etc. The ideal solution would be to use a puller. However it was not possible because there was no clearance at the back of the bearing for the puller arms. Therefore the plan was to use the grinder to cut a couple of slots on the outside of the bearing. These slots would then locate the puller arms. This was a bit of a fiddly job as the bearing kept spinning when the grinder was applied (I suppose that is what bearing tend to do). Finally I managed to get a couple of half decent slots opposite each other - one is visible below:

Then I held the puller arms in place as Fiona did the spanner work and the bearing started to move slightly. Once we  had moved it an inch it was possible to fit the puller arms behind the bearing and progress was much quicker.

Next time I'll be fitting the new backplate, bearing and oil seals. Then its time for the axle gaiters before finally fitting the new rear brakes and drums!