Out of the frying pan...

[sickfleming]

Hey guys. Even though I just got my car running again with the fuel pump connector issue, last night while driving over the speed bumps in my apartment parking lot, I heard a loud POP from my right rear wheel, followed by a metallic rattling that seemed to have that "spinning" or "rotating" sound that also seemed to speed up and slow down with the car. However, it lets off after about 20 mph, popping up every few minutes afterwards. Given the fact that there aren't many moving parts back there, I'm willing to bet Trixie is finally coming down with the popular rear wheel bearing disease lol. Maybe it was slowly going out and didn't make that much noticeable racket til now. Also, it's pretty rusty underneath... :'(
I'm going to check for play tomorrow, plus find out what the high pitched rotating metallic squeak from the front left is coming from. It speeds up along with the car like the previously mentioned noise, at least until I go over about 25mph, when it quiets down. Also, it's not as rough sounding.
This puts me in a pickle, since all I'm missing for the aspire swap is the front left steering knuckle, right rear drum, the wheels and tires, along with new brakes, tie rod ends and bearings.
The problem is just finding the parts, since aspires are already a rare junk yard find around here anyway

[jjk1224]

Sounds more like something inside of the brake drum came loose and is freewheeling inside. After you check for bearing play, you might as well take the tire off, spin the castle nut off the spindle, and check inside the drum for anything out of the ordinary. If it does happen to be a bearing, they are simple and cheap to do as far as the rear ones go. Let us know what you find!

[sickfleming]

Sounds more like something inside of the brake drum came loose and is freewheeling inside. After you check for bearing play, you might as well take the tire off, spin the castle nut off the spindle, and check inside the drum for anything out of the ordinary. If it does happen to be a bearing, they are simple and cheap to do as far as the rear ones go. Let us know what you find!

Yeah, that did cross my mind. Again, the undercarriage looks like the hull of the underwater Titanic with all that Ohio rust to the point my rockers are totally chipping. I've never done rear drum bearings before, but when I took that aspire drum apart, one came right out. I assume a press is needed?

[georgeb]

Only the seal holds the inner bearing in. The races must be tapped out with a long punch.

[DriverOne]

Re: Out of the frying pan...

No, the rear bearings are not pressed. The castle nut determines how tight the bearings are. You don't want too much pressure on them.

[bravekozak]

If you can get the rest of the Aspire rear conversion, you could do that first, until you can find all of the front parts. The rear will be a little higher, but I did it that way.