Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Hello everybody,

On the last few drives I had taken in my 726, I noticed a great deal of noise coming from the driver's side rear wheel. It was a sort of squeaking scratching sound that was hard to hear from inside the car, but was especially prominent if the windows were open and when driving past a building or under a bridge. The reverberation would make it abundantly clear something was amiss. I first thought it may have been the brakes dragging, but the noise was entirely dependent of the speed the car was going, that is, how fast the wheels were turning and did not change when the brakes were applied. Somebody who heard it when leaving a parking lot at a car show suggested it sounded like a bum bearing, so I resolved to pull the wheel off and inspect and replace the bearing. Naturally, I turned to the service manual, which as I have learned in the past is remarkably good at reducing big, complicated jobs into a very few amount of deceptively easy sounding procedures, but having pulled off the front wheels before to inspect the brake linings, I didn't think it would be that hard of a job. A day's work, I told myself, enough to get proper dirty but ultimately get a quieter, safer car.

Well, hell, that job isn't nearly as easy as I hoped. Having removed the wheel and the brake drum, I found the inside of the drum splattered with grease from the bearings. That probably explains why the bearings broke down, as all the grease that had been packed in them had flown out into the brakes. Probably also explains my difficulty equalizing the rear brakes. Having finally removed the axle with the bearings from the bearing housing, it was clear both bearings were shot, as they didn't roll smoothly. As of writing this, I still haven't been able to remove the outer race from the inside of the bearing housing, which will probably need heat to dislodge.

But, most confusingly, I don't believe I have found any sign of an inner seal. The one that should have kept the grease out of the brake drum was shot, and anyway was broken in removal, but I don't recall seeing any sign of an inner seal. Does anyone here know what I should look for, and assuming it is also busted, where to get a replacement? Further, what should the axle end play be when all is done? I read somewhere .002 to .004", but I'm not sure if that's correct for my car. I found when removing the axle that the play that was there was somewhere like an 1/8th or 1/4", which seemed excessive to me.

Does anybody have any advice for putting the axle and bearings back together?

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