Continuing . . .
You have by now read the link thoughtfully provided for your edification, the wheel bearing repack of May 20, 2016, almost exactly two years ago when NaranjaWesty had 50,410 miles exactly. I had forgotten all about the damage I had run across.
"and today I saw the rage of the last person who somehow came to work on NaranjaWesty's left front hub for reasons I will never know."
Now I do.
I had also forgotten my "note to self" that the left wheel bearing had a damaged cage, and that I should attend to it forthwith. Well, that was 63,772 fuel filter clean-outs ago. Clearly, the wheel bearing note had been drowned in a sea of subsequent gasoline fumes and freeway shoulders.
I had written of taking four hours to do that bearing repack. This time was ten. I think the antecedent event that had set off the prior mechanic was what happened to me this time. As I was putting that nice tidy repacked hub (with that damaged bearing! it looked FINE, even the beaver-chewed cage was close enough to round to not bother me) back on the spindle. It stuck. It done did dumb stop dead dang stuck. Well, what could cause that? I tried to remove it so I could see what tool must I have inadvertently left on the spindle, a sledge? a pipe wrench? a cinder block? It would not move. Finally, and very greasily, I popped the hub off the spindle and asked it desperately, "what is WRONG WITH YOU?" The weirdest thing, is that the bearing looked utterly savaged. The cage was bent oval all over again. The spindle had a nasty gouge in it ( the old one, based on the link's photographs, but I sure didn't remember that), and I had to ask if Losing It includes this sort of baffled confused outrage. Cleaned all that nice new grease off of everything. The bearing, nope, you're done this time. The seal, the seal had a chewed look but the spring looked fine (as per the unremembered May 2016 job). I was so very not in the frame of mind to approach this with my usual curiosity. The flying termites were coating everything, the ants had a column marching across the floor, and I had to get this car together (the Lexus back-up was 4 1/2 miles away at the Law Firm).
Here is my late-night scrambled results debris field:
a) filed and sanded spindle
b) sanded inner surface of new Made In Mexico front inner wheel bearing with a real filed bevel on the inner race.
c) a wasted hour looking up and cross-referencing front wheel bearing brands and googling how to remove and repair my "done did dumb stop dead dang stuck front wheel bearing"
d) utter brain damage after THREE AND A HALF HOURS of the Buck Sexton Show on News Radio 93.1 FM whilst trying to catch the moment that I could get the new bearing to slide on with drama. I swear, I don't know why this has been such a problem area for the poor car:
We're not done. The disks had not been turned fully last spring at Advance Auto Parts. There was a serious inch of raised surface whee the cutter never went. This caused a burnt localized overheat on the bottoms of the pads.
It was midnight when I globbed that final garnishment of Ultra-Orange speedometer cable protectant on the newly painted dust cap.
It was next morning when I dremeled off the raised last inch of brake disk and showered the work area with stone and steel dust. The things we have to do! That was the first time I have turned rotors on an air-cooled Volkswagen and it was done wrong. I missed it at the time. Next time, I examine turned rotors most carefully at the counter!:
Did I sit back and take a rest from all of this? Next morning:
That is a new ISP West-issued tachometer. You'll see it in a minute. But look here at the red border on the gauge cluster. I have a little plus under it. That whole five lamp area is *live* when the ignition is on. The lamps ground through the wires at the center of the bulbs. Brilliant for long wire runs back to the engine. Any shorts would merely turn on that lamp, no sparks, no problem. Open circuits would merely make that lamp go dark, and you would catch it at first ignition check which you conduct every time you turn on your Volkswagen:
I took the occasion to organize my wiring a la BobD back in September 14th 2010. Sort of labeled. This was a great chance to repair every questionable spade terminal. All three of them, but it was finding them that was the work:
Installed auditory oil pressure warning system that only alerts if the engine is running:
It is this simple. One wire to alternator warning lamp wire, one wire to oil pressure warning lamp wire, and one key buzzer mosquito relay:
Tachometer has a corona of light escaping around the perimeter due to the dial face being too small for the diffuser. And it has an "ISP West" logo on it which I find the height of branding barf.
Daytime, off to test drive. Oops. I forgot to pump up the brakes after retracting caliper pistons. Good thing there was no traffic - there was no stopping at the bottom of the driveway: