Backing Plates

[berliner]

when i started on this project i decided i would put kg discs on the front;long story short i have ended up with a '60 bug with 4 bolt wheels...yeah,i know...at the rear i have '60 axle tubes,saw short axles,backing plates and drums from later beetle,and bearing retainers to match the tubes.it doesn't look quite right,and i'm wondering if the old backing plates were the same thickness as the later ones....any guesses?thanks....mike

[josh]

not dvkk but I may have your answer......... is the problem when you tighten the 4 bearing retainer bolts the backing plate is still a bit loose?
if so that happened to me, if you look at the back of the retainer/seal housing there may be a 1/16\" or so lip on the gasket sealing surface. I had to trim that down a bit on the lathe (you could just draw file it or grind it down a too) it was almost like I had miss matched retainer to backing plates?

 

[berliner]

with mine it seems like everything tightens up alright,but it doesn't look like the o-ring outside the bearing will compress when it's together,as if there's too much room in there(plate thickness?)

[josh]

there's 2 o-rings right? do you have the tapered spacer that goes over the axle first?

[berliner]

all that stuff is ok...i did some homework and i think i have the wrong tubes;they came off my old splitcase and methinks i need 61-66 tubes;the little ridge thingy that squishes the o-ring is very short on these ones so the o-ring is just floating around loose in there,thus it leaks like a sieve.i'll try to find some tubes...thanks for the input,josh.....mike