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Recently took my 76 westy on a 65 mile one way trip and back. About 4 miles from my arrival point I was slowing down to turn. I could hear kind of like a banging sound that went with the wheel speed. Sounded like right rear. Parked at the show. Jacked up thr right rear and and moved it top to bottom and left to right. Just a very slight amount of play. Rotated the wheel and it was dead quiet. Also checked the wheel nuts.All tight......Drove it back home with no problems. Jacked it up in the garage . Checked the CV at wheel and tranny....All tight.....Guess I will drive it till it does it again.....have no idea why......Put 44 miles on it last year and 66 miles the year before...Thought it might have been a wheel bearing but really doubt it.....no grinding and wheel was not hot.......any ideas???????
Thanks

Sounds like a CV joint, you did not mention pulling the CV's, they probably need cleaned, inspected and fresh grease.

Golf-you can push the axle shaft towards one joint then the other. If the boots are cracked and/or not much squish, prolly a CV that got in a bind with the turn. Which direction was the turn

Was not turning...was braking in a straight line...If I grab the axle should I be able to move it in and out a little..towards the wheel and then towards the tranny.....I have never pulled the cv's......have owned it for about 8 years now....... I like the idea of pulling the CV's and repacking them with fresh grease....Do I have to be careful that the ball bearings do not fall out when I remove them? What size wrench fith the bolts.....I have one for the bugs but that is different fron the bus.

Thanks

Jack each of your rear wheels up separately and then with the tranny in gear, rock the raised wheel forward and back. There should be only a little play in the CV joints. Now with the wheel lightly pressed first in the forward and then in the reverse direction slide the axle in and out. It should move smoothly, you should not feel the balls passing into and out of any pits.

There are two different tools used to attach the CV joints to the flanges, some rigs have only one kind some have both. One is a plain six sided Allen wrench (6mm?) while the other is a twelve pointed triple square (8mm?).

If you are going to the bother of taking the axle off to renew the grease, you should go ahead and replace the boots. This will mean you need to disassemble the joint so yes you will have to take the balls out, no biggie though.

If your boots are good and you just want to add some new grease you can insert a long grease needle up under the small end of the boot and pump a few shots of new grease into the joint. Afterward massage the boots to work the new grease into the joint.