[dtbaker]

Originally Posted by Ziggythewiz

So my Bug's been making increasingly loud noises lately. I can accelerate from 0-45 in 2nd smoothly and relatively quietly, but if I reapply any throttle when already above 35 there is a loud humming/vibration noise coming from what I think is the tranny. (No clutch, D&D ES-31B, 120V)

Any ideas what would cause this?

my guess would be your clutchless coupler is blowing up. clutched designs do a good job of absorbing shock loads and or small misalignment.

hard couplers will eventually fatigue and break.... so, unless you have a pretty high quality, super centered, spring-loaded, professionally welded coupler; I'd look there first.

[Ziggythewiz]

Originally Posted by zsnemeth

Fully assembled drive shaft is 60$ on ebay, the easiest, cheapest and fastest to get a pair and change it on both side at the same time. Only 12bolts/side.

If only...

Started out pulling the left side axle to see if I could regrease it and put it back. Tranny side was more watery/oily than greasy. Wife was sick so didn't have much time to recondition it so I ordered a new one.

Tried to fit the new one in and bearings started falling out. I tried to work them back in, but not knowing what I was doing, no dice. Apparently the new one has much looser fittings and wasn't packed well enough so on one side the bearing cage had worked itself above the inner part so everything was just ready to fall out.

I decided to take apart the old one to figure out how things were supposed to fit together. Learned enough about the basic workings but didn't manage to actually get it all back in. Will clean it up and try more someday...

Got the new one reassembled, was probably good it fell apart since there wasn't much grease in there to begin with. Got it installed and the sound with the wheels up was different but not gone.

Being an EV with an old body eliminating one noise just reveals another, so no more noise from the tranny side CV, but the wheel bearing sounds bad.

Actually driving the sound doesn't seem nearly as bad as before, but not sure if that's from replacing the axle or just from being in an ICE too long or because I pulled the spare so the weight is somewhat lighter (the last time I had driven it I was loaded down with groceries and it made the noises extra terrible).

So I'll pull the wheel bearing this weekend and see if it just wants grease or needs replacing also.

[onegreenev]

With VW's one thing always leads to another. Before you know it your bug will transform into one of these.

[ev-converter]

Originally Posted by dtbaker

my guess would be your clutchless coupler is blowing up. clutched designs do a good job of absorbing shock loads and or small misalignment.

hard couplers will eventually fatigue and break.... so, unless you have a pretty high quality, super centered, spring-loaded, professionally welded coupler; I'd look there first.

BAD guess, not TRUE

[piotrsko]

next question: how tight was/ is the axle nut? they should be only 253 ft lbs, but sometimes I have had to dance on the end of a 10 ft cheater bar {estimated 1500 ft lbs} to get a new to me bug's axle loose. If someone has gone way overboard, the inner bearings (I Think which are ball bearings) tend to try to climb the race and self destroy the bearing. I have even had the axle spacer become distorted by 1/8 inch. The inner supports the weight of the car, the outer is for torsional and cornering loads. You can check both with the axle shaft pulled. You need to disconnect the joint to properly check with the axle shaft in, otherwise there is too much load involved.

[Ziggythewiz]

I've had em off before, but they seem to self tighten. The first time I had to cut em off, this time it came off with just 800 ft lbs by my calcs

[onegreenev]

Originally Posted by Ziggythewiz

I've had em off before, but they seem to self tighten. The first time I had to cut em off, this time it came off with just 800 ft lbs by my calcs

Oh my! That is way too tight. This is what you need if you own an old air cooled VW. By far the most perfect tool you can have. Don't over torque your rear axle nuts. Don't under torque them either. This will save your butt and you never need a ball buster breaker bar to do the work ever again. Good for the axle nut and flywheel gland nut. I had a socket welded so I could do the VW bus large axle nuts. Works perfect. Well worth the tiny investment. Had mine for a very long time and use it all the time. You will wonder how you ever got along with out it.

[ricklearned]

I got one of those and it works great. It is supposed to work on my flywheel too. I will find out about that next week. Got mine at aircooled.net

[onegreenev]

They work great on the flywheel too. Their is no better tool for removing those items.

[Duncan]

Originally Posted by onegreenev

Oh my! That is way too tight. This is what you need if you own an old air cooled VW. By far the most perfect tool you can have. Don't over torque your rear axle nuts. Don't under torque them either. This will save your butt and you never need a ball buster breaker bar to do the work ever again. Good for the axle nut and flywheel gland nut. I had a socket welded so I could do the VW bus large axle nuts. Works perfect. Well worth the tiny investment. Had mine for a very long time and use it all the time. You will wonder how you ever got along with out it.

That's a neat device

Make sure and use a torque wrench
(and know the multiplication factor)
When doing them back up