Mk3 Golf GTi Rear Bearing Completely Collapsed. Stub Axle Welded?

[dirk1978]

Hi all.

I'm trying to sort my mom's Golf GTi 8v mk3. She was driving the other day and the rear wheel just locked up solid. The wheel/drum was then completely loose on the hub.

I've got a new bearing but I'm having a mare with it. I've had to angle grind the 2 8mm hex bolts holding the caliper carrier on due to stripping them and every bolt I try and undo just strips.

Anyway, I've finally managed to get the caliper carrier off and now the drum so I managed to pull most of the stuff out of the drum but I can't get something off the axle, either I don't understand how it works or it's welded on. Could anyone please help me out and let me know what's going on?

The axle with whatever it is on the end. I can't get the remaining bearing bit off with it there.






I've pulled out all the sheared melted bit's of bearing from inside the hub. Can anyone tell me if any of this is still part of the old bearing and will need to come out?





Finally, I'm not sure the new bearing I have is the right one. Does this look right?



As you've probably guessed I've never done a bearing before so have no idea what to do. I've read a bit on here which made it sound easy but that's not my experience so far!

Cheers.

[Wayne]

The part that is stuck looks like the old inner race of the bearing, if so cut it off.

Yes that is the inner race in the disc and will also need to come out.

[archie837]

with your races mate there should be 2 little cuts out in the side of the drum. This will let you get a chisel / punch on the top of it and you can then knock it out with a hammer

[todd]

heat it up and nock it off with a hammer and a punch

[harlemex]

The bearing has overheated and welded itself to the stub axle. Trying to get it off will most likely result in damage to the axle. I would get another axle from a scrappy, or buy a new one.

[dirk1978]

Thanks for the replies guys. After having to grind the 2 bolts off holding the caliper carrier on to the hub and then stripping the nut on the brake line I then snapped the end off the bleed nipple. Everything seems to be welded together on this job and all the metal is like butter. It's amazing how my Passat is only 4 years newer than this car yet seems like a new car everywhere whereas this seems like it was dredged up with the titanic.

Anyway, it's done now. Everyone says to just put the bearings back in how they came out, the problem is there was nothing left of the old outer bearing so I ended up thinking about how it worked wrong and put the race back in the wrong way round (thought both the bearings must have faced outwards) until I realised they faced in towards each other and had to knock the new race out again.

I did damage the axle by having to grind the old bearing shell off, but I can't see it would make that much difference where it is. Hopefully that's not famous last words, I just needed this job to be as cheap as possible. If it was my car I'd probably replace a few things down there.

[AudiA8Quattro]

The bearing has overheated and welded itself to the stub axle. Trying to get it off will most likely result in damage to the axle. I would get another axle from a scrappy, or buy a new one.

+1
Stub axle damage is likely.