hi fellas. tech question here for the experts:

is it OK to roll a car around, say in my driveway, without a drivetrain or axles in it? i was lead to believe it might ruin the front wheel bearings to roll the car around without axles in them; of course, installing axles is quite a pain when there is no engine or tranny

car is a Civic, if it makes a difference!

thanx in advance,

todd

 

I have never heard that. I have rolled a few CRXs around without axles in. The last one was my wife's CRX, from the pine tree with a convenient branch in the backyard, to the garage (when my engine hoist was ailing).

 

I'm no expert, but I can't see how the bearings would get fudged. The axle, to my understanding, shouldn't be bearing any vehicle support loads anyways. All that the axle should do is provide acceleratory (+/-) forces to the wheels. Really, I guess I just wonder if something would get fudged - how?

 

It's generally held that VWs don't like that at all and that it doesn't take much for the bearings to essentially come unstacked, if a load is placed on them without the squeeze provided by the hub nut. I can't say about Hondas.

K

 

Todd, this might be a hillariously foolish suggesion (if so, ya'll owe me for a laugh) but if its a concern about simply having pressure on them and you have a few throw away junk axles (maybe I am the only one that has these), can you take off the outer joint and zip the hub nuts on those or do the outer joints not come apart as easily as the inners?

 

I'm not sure about your car, but I suspect most Honda front bearings are made similarly, so this would probably apply.

On my 98 Prelude, the driveshaft holds the inner race on the bearing in place. While I was doing a rebuild, I rolled it around in place without the driveshafts installed. I didn't have any problems at that time. However, when my wife and I moved, I had to put the car on a trailer to move it to the house. Again, there were no driveshafts installed, but when I lowered the car off of the jackstands, the passenger's side bearing separated. I jacked the car back up to figure out what to do. I went to the local Home Depot and bought a couple of 5/8" (might have been 1/2") bolts, washers, and nuts. IIRC, the bolts were 3.5" long. I put a washer on each end of the bolt, and faced the head of the bolt inwards. Then I tightened the nut and pressed the bearing back together. I decided to do that on both sides to hold the bearings together while I loaded and unloaded the car when we moved. It worked perfectly.

I actually have pictures, so if you'd like to see them, just e-mail me.

EDIT: grammer!

 

The wheel bearings may suffer the same fate as the Volkswagen ones. Have you ever felt the play in a hub that does not have an axle nut tightened down on it? Yes the inner bearing race can come free of the *****, and the hub could pop right out. It may not be a really big issue just rolling the car around, as the worst that will happen is the wheel might fall off, and then you'll be stuck trying to jack the car back up with no ground clearance, and then possibly faced with having to replace the wheel bearing. Its not life or death. But if you were flat towing the car, or towing from the rear, you would definitely need the outer joints in there, with the axle nuts good and tight.

 

Actually, Adam, you describe exactly the solution that we used with various 'dubs over the years. We knocked a couple outer joints apart (the ***** make fun toys for kids), cleaned up the stub forging and used just that piece...

K

 

i have been rolling hUnda cars around without axels for years....i have yet to have a bearing go bad!

 

rolling a car around without axles???

DO NOT do it, you must keep pressure on outer race.

 

It is really not a good idea to roll it around without preload on the bearing. We use 3/4" threaded rod (about 12" long) put through the hub with nuts on either side and appropriate sized washers to put preload on the bearings. I keep four sets of these in my toolbox. This is also what I use for installing front wheel bearings on the car if the knuckle can not be removed for whatever reason.

 

i left axles in mine when I had to do it..