I've done a full restoration on my -00 Felicia front brakes; Taken the calibers apart, sandblasted and painted them, new grease and sealings, new pads and discs. Then I thought my rear shoes were done since the handbrake gets stuck every time i use it. So I removed the drums and found out my f**king rear wheel bearings (yes sir, both sides) were done. The nuts holding the drums on the axle were so loose I could unscrew them with two fingers. I checked the mechanism and I'm certain there must have been an error done when mounting them, since the nut is held in place with a bottlecap looking thing and there is no way it could get loose by itself - hence someone must have left it loose.

The drums were okay and the shoes too. So I ordered new bearings - mounted them, checked that there was no air in the brakelines and thought I was good to go. But my brakes seemed loose and there was too much brakepedal travel. Then I found this: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/technical-guides/felicia-fav-fel-fab-oct-drum-brakes/49988/

That thread should be a sticky - the auto adjust mechanism really does not work. Fortunately for me the situation worked out just by pressing the pedal down and hammering the inside plate of the rear brakes to release the "auto adjustment bar".

I'm a bit dissapointed with skoda if theyre so careless that they leave barings loose. :(

I'm a bit dissapointed with skoda if theyre so careless that they leave barings loose.

Well, I can't believe they've been like that for 7 years. As it is you're lucky a wheel didn't fall off (I've had it happen, years ago, on some car or other) but over that period it would have been a cert. Blame whoever last inspected/worked on those bearings, who's clearly a sloppy so-and-so.

The repairdiary doesn't mention anything regarding rear wheel bearings or rear brakes, and it has been updated in Skoda dealers since I bought the car. Of course that doesn't exclude the option that some jackass has done something with the rear hubs on his own..

Anyways, here's a picture of the felly calibers after blasting and painting (sorry bout the poor quality - phonecam):

And here are some pictures of the car itself, since I havent shown it off here yet Near mint -00 Skoda Felicia 1.3 mpi Enjoy:

When the rear wheel bearings are correctly adjusted, the hub nuts are not much more than finger tight. That's why the "bottlecap" and split pin are there so that the nut doesn't fall off.

How tight did you tighten your rear hub nuts?

I don't know the exact torque, but I did tighten them using a ratchet wrench. I tightened them so the wheel could easily roll on the axle but not jiggle. The torque is more than what I could do with my bare hands though. I'm pretty sure the tightness the nuts were in earlier was too loose because the wheel could wobble on the axle thus breaking the bearings.

Nice Felicia. In Mint condition too

LHD. What country are you from?

Comfort spec? and is that headlamp washers I see?

We didnt get them on UK cars did we? :confused:

LHD in Finland. I'm really not sure what comfort spec consists, I've thought it's a cheapo model since it lacks power steering, abs and AC. But yeah, the headlight washers came with .

Ahhhhhhhh :rolleyes:

We got the PAS some models got ABS and AC

Mine hasnt got ABS or AC but has got PAS

How useful are the headlamp washers though?

Liking your pics although your wheel caps/covers seem to be missing.

The washers are pretty handy since the roads are salted here during winter and the front end is usually covered in dirt..

well, the felly failed MOT. It wasn't the brakes but leftside outer tie rod end and right side drive link sealing (don't know if that's the right word for it in english - it's the sealing over the link connecting the wheel axle to the motor... please tell me what's it in english, if I'm wrong!)

The tie rod end I can manage, but I've never had to change the drive link sealing before, any tips?

:)Maybe a driveshaft gaiter?

Thanks for clearing that up! The dictionaries here suggested "drag link" as a translation for the finnish word

When replacing the driveshaft gaiter, do I haveto take anything else loose than the tie rod end to get the driveshaft-axle-combo through the hub? Also, is there a DIY guide for setting up toe correctly after replacing the tie rod ends?

Great looking car, love the colour too.

When replacing the driveshaft gaiter, do I haveto take anything else loose than the tie rod end to get the driveshaft-axle-combo through the hub?

Yes, the bottom balljoint has to come apart. If it's the same as the Favorit you take out one M10 cross-bolt and then just push the bottom member downwards until the ball joint shaft disengages. Don't use a lever! It will almost always contact the ball joint gaiter and tear it.

In theory you can get the drive shaft out of the hub without undoing the track rod balljoint but I've never tried - getting that apart is no big deal as long as you have a ball joint separating tool.

Things you need to know about getting the drive shaft out of the hub:

The drive shaft nut is staked so obviously you have to use a punch and hammer to get that out. It is also _VERY_ tight so you will need a good breaker bar with a decent socket on it (32mm I think). I have a 60cm breaker bar and I only weigh 65kg, so I have to jump up and down on the breaker bar to get the nut undone. Do this before removing the wheel!

Usually the shaft will come out with just a few taps with a lump hammer to loosen it, but occasionally it will be rusted in place and you'll have to bang it all the way out. An old half-inch ratcher extension makes a useful drift for this.

Undo the old gaiter and pull it back up the shaft so you can see the joint. Any sign _at all_ of dryness or corrosion and it needs replacing - depends how bad the gaiter split was and how long it had been like that.

Now you've got to get the hub off the shaft. It is held in place by a circlip which you cannot possibly get at.

I never bother getting the drive shaft out of the gearbox as it leads to oil leakage. I prefer to pull the CV joint off the shaft in place. My trick is to take a small vice and clamp it on the drive shaft to add some weight. Now sit on the ground by the hub with your feet pushing the vice towards the gearbox, while pulling the hub off the shaft with one hand. Tap the joint with a hammer held in the other hand (gentle taps with a big hammer are more productive than whacking it with a little one) - it should come off quite easily like this.

Remove old grease from the CVJ, pull the old gaiter off the shaft, fit the new one loosely, put everything back together, put new grease in the CVJ, fit the circlips. Put the shaft back into the hub, refit the ball joints, put the wheel on, drop the car to the road and refit the drive shaft nut.

You should use a new nut as the staking will need to be in the same place, BUT I find I can get away with re-using the nut once. Before fitting it, apply grease to the thread and mating face of the nut, then torque it as recommended (about 200ft-lb, whatever that is in Nm). You will usually find that it tightens about half a flat more than originally. Jack the car back up and get the wheel off again so you can stake the nut.

Adjusting toe-in after replacing a track rod end can be done pretty accurately by eye,. First, measure the new and old ends as accurately as you can so you know you are starting from a reasonably accurate toe-in after reassembling the car. With the car on a straight and level bit of road, move it forwards and backwards a few metres, with steering centred, so the wheels are not stressed sideways at all. Measure the width across front and across back wheels - the front width is a couple of cm wider than the back. Now sight down the side of the front wheel on each side and see how it compares to the back - ideally each side should sight down to a point about 1.4cm out from the edge of the back wheels - 1cm for the extra width and 4mm for the toe-out. It's easier to think about how this works than for me to describe it!

Richard Black - you're my new hero!

Thanks for the writeup! I'm pretty sure I'll manage with these.

Just one more question. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if for some reason the old tie rod ends were adjusted badly and my toe would be out of place after installing new ones, is this the way to measure toe:

And if so, should measure 1 = measure 2 when the wheels are straight? or is a little toe-in/toe-out better (if so, how much in total)?

...anyone?

The jobs done and the car passed MOT, thanks to everyone who helped me.

I wrote a tutorial of the job, if anyone ever needs similar assistance.. http://www.briskoda.net/forums/technical-guides/outer-drive-shaft-gaiter-outer-tie-rod-end-tutorial-felicia/99850/

Great job with the tutorial, cheers

okay... my right rear wheel hub bearing is done.. AGAIN!! This time I know for a fact the nut holding the bearing in place was not mounted loose ( I changed them myself :shhh: ), and still the bearing and the nut were loose indeed.

After all the cursing and a pack of sigarettes, I checked what could cause the nut to get loose by itself. I found that the bottlecap looking thing is too short (at least for my axels) and can turn even tho the pin is in place. The next thing I'm gonna do is replace the bearing (again), get rid of the bottlecap patent and make a lock nut with holes for the pin so I can be secured the nut won't get loose by itself.

A mechanic told me the bearings can loosen up with time. Mine did. If everything is within spec I'm intrigued that the lock ring is too short for a split pin to hold the nut.

So the OP is proposing to make a castellated nut themself. I'd appreciate separate and fitted photos if you do that.

Nuts can work a bit against free play, and roller bearings are usually tapered, so a little play can make a significant difference to the tightness of the bearing.

Could there be a differnce between skoda original bearings and the aftermark ones I installed last time width wise..? If the bearings I bought were somehow more narrow than the originals the lock ring could fall short. Didn't bother to measure the width of the bearings last time since they fitted fine otherwise.

Anyhow, new bearings have been mounted by a shop (sorry, no photos), I'll keep an ear out for any noise out of the ordinare and check for tightness from time to time. If something goes wrong any time soon, then I'll have a closer look if the problem is in the axle or somewhere else.

Could there be a differnce between skoda original bearings and the aftermark ones I installed last time width wise..? If the bearings I bought were somehow more narrow than the originals the lock ring could fall short. Didn't bother to measure the width of the bearings last time since they fitted fine otherwise.

Anyhow, new bearings have been mounted by a shop (sorry, no photos), I'll keep an ear out for any noise out of the ordinare and check for tightness from time to time. If something goes wrong any time soon, then I'll have a closer look if the problem is in the axle or somewhere else.

I'd like to hope not. If in doubt, then if you get the old bearing out, and take it to a bearing factor (specialist in guess what, and nothing much else) they'll measure all sort of stuff like width, internal and external diameter, and taper, and supply something that is a direct replacement.