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I'm a little bit squeamish about taking the rear wheel bearings out of my beetle. They are a vital part of the car and need to work properly for it to function. I think I now have all of the tools and procedures lined up to take them apart, re-pack or replace them, and then put the wheels and brakes back together.
The first thing I need to do is remove drive shafts. They run from the transmission to the axle stubs. At the bottom here you can see the brake plate and stub axle, and above it the drive shaft going towards the car and the transmission:
The ends of the drive shaft are held on by unusual bolts which have a 12-point cap head. Here's a photo of the end of the drive shaft where it bolts to the stub axle:
I'd been worried about being able to get the right tool for those bolts. This last week I managed to find the right thing at O'Reilly auto parts here in town:
By the way, the general type is a "triple square".
The second smallest size, the M8 is the one that fits
So I think I'm finally ready to go in and take it all apart.
I have new bearings to replace them if that's necessary.
There are two bearings per wheel. The inner bearing is a ball bearing, it's installed all as one piece:
The outer bearing is a roller bearing:
with a removable inner race:
