Thread: Packing wheel bearings.

The only problem i can see with heating the grease is you would have to leave the bearing in there till it cooled off or the grease would run back out of the bearing when taken out . There fore making the hand technique a faster process .

That would be the only problem I saw also. But if you only used the bare minium of greese, it wouldnt take long to return to room temp

I wonder if it is possible to design a case for the bearing to sit in ( sealed ) with a grease nipple on it and just pump the grease into the case packing the bearing ?

Originally Posted by wannalandy

I wonder if it is possible to design a case for the bearing to sit in ( sealed ) with a grease nipple on it and just pump the grease into the case packing the bearing ?

Called a bearing greaser - never used one though.

The main problem I see with the idea of melting the grease to apply it is that wheel bearing grease is designed NOT to melt when it gets hot, so you would have to use a pretty high temperature, possibly high enough to damage the bearing.

John

said casings already exist and are essentially 2 cones on a hollow thread that you screw apart sandwich the bearing with and then inject grease into quick, easy messy and more wastefull of grease than doing them by hand.

one of my bits of kit is a grease nipple with a football inflator soldered on the end all you do is place the bearing on a flat metal surface and then with the needle on the end of a grease gun simply use that to inject grease between the bearings race, cage and rollers.

if the bearing is big enough and the grease is sloppy enough doing like mike did and dropping them into the tub actually works if you drop it so that the larger end is down but because of the amount of grease that sticks to the outside its very hard to tell if you got the guts of the bearing packed properly.


after watching the same Army episidoe of dirty jobs Im a firm believer that the US army doesnt follow any OH+S rules....

stepping on a hauling rope?
not securing the tyres after its off the vehicle? (see camara man get squished by a truck tyre)
Not using a mechanical lifting aid to remove a tyre?
getting inside the dangerous working area of a live rope during a winching (the bog hole one)

bet the US armys OH+S guys loved that.

IMHO,, bearings should only ever be packed 2/3rds full.
does anyone else know why?

Got me there Pedro, do tell?

i was always thaught the hubs only 2/3rds full at most, the races should be fully packed as they will fling any extra into the void.


the grease heats up and expands and pushes the seals out would be one reason i would think...