Wheel bearings, Stub axles and Ignorance

Most rolling bearings fail due to contamination or poor lubrication. Good bearing life in the sort of environment that a 4wd wheel is exposed to, depends on good sealing.

Other failures can be due to poor assembly practice, such as over tightening (bearings need clearance), or too much grease (which leads to overheating).

IMHO the journal for the inner seal is in poor condition. See pic which I have enhanced to correct the exposure. And as Dave has said, the corner that the seal has to fit over is damaged and is likely to damage the seal lip when the hub is fitted.

There have been several threads on this forum, where converting the bearings to oil lubrication is discussed, along with the reasons for doing so. Since rover changed to grease lubrication and dust seals in place of decent oil seals, wheel bearings fail much more often.

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Originally Posted by Bush65

Other failures can be due to poor assembly practice, such as over tightening (bearings need clearance), or too much grease (which leads to overheating).

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Now I'm confused again - how can you put too much grease in the wheel bearings? I thought the whole idea was to stuff the things full of it, plus some on the oil seal, plus some more on the stub axle?

I don't know how much they are here but this is what you can buy one in the Uk for and get shipped over
http://www.land-rover-parts-shop.com.../55/129/100121

Thanks Reads. :) (That means they'll be about $150 each here) :P

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Originally Posted by DiscoDave

Thanks Reads. :) (That means they'll be about $150 each here) :P

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I don't know of that is good or not as i have two brand new ones in the back of the 90 (which i bought in the Uk). So i have never looked at them here so don't know how much they are

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Originally Posted by jimbo110

the part the seal runs on is a replaceable collar (on my old disco anyway) but with a clean up that one should be fine, just radius the square shoulder of the seal collar slightly so the new seal doesn't get buggered when you slide the hub onto the stub:D

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sounds like someone has installed a Speedi-sleeve.
Usually installed when the seal surface is R/S. Have one on the rear RHS stub axle otherwise the oil goes ta ta's

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Originally Posted by rick130

sounds like someone has installed a Speedi-sleeve.
Usually installed when the seal surface is R/S. Have one on the rear RHS stub axle otherwise the oil goes ta ta's

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I'm probably confusing it with the series 3 I had at the same time, It had the replacable collar on the stub. Its just typical that the newer ones are throw away items when they get worn (or speedi sleeve). Mind you it could be a strength issue, when the collar was removed (about 6mm thick) the stub looked very skinney :eek:

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Originally Posted by DiscoDave

Now I'm confused again - how can you put too much grease in the wheel bearings? I thought the whole idea was to stuff the things full of it, plus some on the oil seal, plus some more on the stub axle?

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If you use really thick grease or extra high temp grease its easy enough to do..

but gp grease IMho you can never have too much grease...

The problems come when the grease traps the heat.

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Originally Posted by DiscoDave

Now I'm confused again - how can you put too much grease in the wheel bearings? I thought the whole idea was to stuff the things full of it, plus some on the oil seal, plus some more on the stub axle?

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From an SKF bearing manual:

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... In general the free space in the bearing housing should only be partly filled with grease (30 to 50%). Overfilling causes rapid temperature rise particularly if speeds are high. Suitable initial grease fill for bearings mounted in SKF bearing housings are given in the table section "Bearing housings".

Where bearings are to operate at slow speeds, good protection against corrosion may be obtained by filling the housing completely with grease.

The limiting speeds for grease lubricated bearings are listed in the bearing tables (see also section entitled "Limiting speeds").

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In the case of bearings overfilled with grease the heat is mostly due to the bearing rollers having to "pump" the excess grease out from between the roller and the races and cage.

Petroleum based greases are made from oil emulsified with metal soaps. Some greases use a percentage of water with the metallic soap for emulsification, and because of this, the emulsification will break down when the temperature gets to high - resulting in loss of the lubricating oil through seals that aren't suitable for oil retention.

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Originally Posted by camel_landy

Like Dave, there's a bit of 'devils advocate' going on here as the photo isn't showing us everything that we could see if we had the part in our hands.

As for the lip that the seal runs on... If there's nothin more than a couple of light dings then I agree that a rub with the emery would probably do. However, if a grove has been worn, heavy pitting/scoring then I'd probably look at fitting something else. Something has happened to that leading edge...

M

PS... Queenstown eh?? Gotta say that my missus cr@pped herself when we went over that tiny suspension bridge. :angel:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...008/01/341.jpg

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matches the main road..........:p