93 Metro keeps burning up rear wheel bearings

[dwendt1978]

About every 3000 miles my 93 xfi keeps roasting the back pass. side wheel bearing. It will start to howl so load you can't hear the radio over it.

When I changed the rear brakes I took off the spindle nut and I swear I messed the threads up or something causing this problem. I have torqued it to 129lbs like the manual says and it still does it.

Maybe I'm not packing the bearings well enough, or using wrong kind?? Gotta get ole girl back on the road with 4 dollar gas!

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by dwendt1978

About every 3000 miles my 93 xfi keeps roasting the back pass. side wheel bearing. It will start to howl so load you can't hear the radio over it.

When I changed the rear brakes I took off the spindle nut and I swear I messed the threads up or something causing this problem. I have torqued it to 129lbs like the manual says and it still does it.

Maybe I'm not packing the bearings well enough, or using wrong kind?? Gotta get ole girl back on the road with 4 dollar gas!

when your replacing wheel bearing are you putting a new race to?

[dwendt1978]

Now I'm starting to find most say only torque to 79lbs or something like that. Maybe I'm causing it.

[dwendt1978]

You know this is the 3rd set I've put in so I oughta know. I just can't remember (over 1 yr ago) If they came with them then yes I did. But to tell you the truth if I remember right, when I bought the bearings, it was just the bearings and no races.

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by dwendt1978

You know this is the 3rd set I've put in so I oughta know. I just can't remember (over 1 yr ago) If they came with them then yes I did. But to tell you the truth if I remember right, when I bought the bearings, it was just the bearings and no races.

ok then i would look up on autozone .com and see the part number on the race.

good luck........

[Rooy]

Scrapper, you might want to familiarize yourself with the Metro before trying to answer questions about it.

There is no separate race. The rear uses two one-piece single row ball bearings, separated by a spacer.

And yes, you over-torqued them. 129 ft-lbs is for the fronts. The rears get 74 ft-lbs, but some people will even go less than that.

You have the spacer between the bearings, right?

[Woodie83]

Rooy has got it there with the spacer, that's the source of a lot of bearing failures on Metros. If the spacer is right then the torque goes through the inner race/spacer/inner race. How much torque you apply is not going to matter to the bearing itself, it's not involved. I'd hit the junkyard and get an entire corner, spindle to lug nuts.

[dwendt1978]

Yes there is a cone shaped spacer in there. I'll get a new set off bearings and try it again torquing to 74lbs. Need to track down a new spindle nut, as mine is torn up from replacing it 4 times.

This bearing issue caused me to park her for over a year.

[carpenter_jai]

Also get the alignment checked. A tire badly out of alignment cooks that wheel bearing within the mileage you're describing. Can even cause the hub nut to loosen up to the point that brakes won't worked. Make sure that if you have replaced that nut a few times that you use a new one cause you need to (scratching my head for the technical term) stake the nut (hit the nut with a cold chisel or big flat head screw driver to make sure it doesn't work itself loose.

Jai

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by Rooy

Scrapper, you might want to familiarize yourself with the Metro before trying to answer questions about it.

There is no separate race. The rear uses two one-piece single row ball bearings, separated by a spacer.

And yes, you over-torqued them. 129 ft-lbs is for the fronts. The rears get 74 ft-lbs, but some people will even go less than that.

You have the spacer between the bearings, right?

ok your so dam smart why didn't you figure it out your self? you should have known about the torque was way to much and next time get a book.

[Rooy]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

ok your so dam smart why didn't you figure it out your self? you should have known about the torque was way to much and next time get a book.

Uh, I'm not the original poster...

[Metro Mighty Mouse]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

ok your so dam smart why didn't you figure it out your self? you should have known about the torque was way to much and next time get a book.

Sir,

Last warning. The request that you verify your information before posting a repair suggestion is not unreasonable. Your lack of specific information relating to the Metro as well as your apparent disdain for it is not helping anyone and continued acidic comments will not be tolerated on this forum. The people that frequent this forum have years of experience and many have factory manuals, we are capable of helping with pretty much any issue and do not need your uninformed comments to confuse people seeking assistance. Please take it elsewhere or we will start the work to have you removed.

MMM

[carpenter_jai]

And gee wizz, the even the best of the best make simple mistakes that surprise the people who know them well. Better to assume this then treat a person like they are dumb.

Jai

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by Rooy

Uh, I'm not the original poster...

ok my bad sorry...end of story to the other guy.

[MetroKinsman]

Just an item that might be helpful. Just now I checked both of my manuals. One is the Haynes manual and the other is my 1994 factory manual. In both books, if the staked spindle nuts are used, the required torque is 129 ft. lbs. for both the front and the rear applications. My Metro is a 1994 base model. Needless to say, the spacers must be in place. Otherwise the result will probably be disasterous. Since I have never needed to remove the front ones, I can't comment further. However, as far as the races are concerned, I can state that ball bearings in every application I have ever encountered have always been provided both inner and outer races. Ball bearings have to transfer the load via the inner race to steel balls themselves, and then to an outer race. Probably, the outer races are press fit into the brake drums themselves, and when replacement time arrives, outer races will have to be driven out quite carefully and new ones tapped back in, again, quite carefully and evenly.

As a final note: If castellated nuts are used, then the specified torque values do differ. 58 to 86 ft. lbs. for the rear drums, and 108.5 to 195.0 for the drive axle-to- hub nuts. These figures come from the 1994 factory manual.

Best regards,
MetroKinsman