Ben,

Thanks a lot for the informative photos and descriptions.

I pulled the drums and backing plates and saw nothing immediately amiss, but one of the bearing races (shells?) was slightly crooked in the axle toob. It was also worn unevenly as seen below.

One side was shiney on the top while 180 degrees away was shiney on the bottom. The picture isn't the best. The races themselves are not pitted at all, and the bearings show no signs of wear. Anyway, I think this shell misallignment is one of my problems. While I was at it I wanted to replace seals, bearings, etc. Is this something that a machine shop will have to do? I tried to remove the outer bearing on a parts axle without success.

Matt, I looked again with a micrometer and the axial play is more like 1 mm. I work with metric at work all the time so it's easier for me to visualize it. That and the Vespas are both metric and require more attention than the Volvo, this incident notwithstanding.

Also, who knows the difference between the "tapered" and "untapered" axle shafts? I had always thought that up to '66 had these so-called tapered shafts and were weaker in this area. Later cars had the non-tapered shafts. At least I thoguht the switch was in the '67 model year. Anyway, I have this parts axle from a '68 and its axle shafts look identical to those I pulled out of my '66. Anyway, just curious.

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Justin 66 122E, 71 145S
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