[VAC] Re: Re Packing Wheel Bearings

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer]

I know a former filling station operator (sells water softeners now) who
says he never used anything but chassis grease when packing wheel
bearings for customers. Never had any complaints. Of course when the
wheel bearings locked up and wrecked the cars the accident investigation
didn't detect the wheel bearing failures after they hit a bridge
abutment head on...

Wheel bearing grease for disk brakes is rated for higher temperature
operation than the old stringy wheel bearing grease that was standard 30
years ago.

I find that using a bar of aluminum (about 1/2 x 3/4") trimmed to the
diameter of the outer race makes removing and replacing bearings a
breeze with the hydraulic press compared to the hammer and punch
technique. If I was truly serious, I'd buy a special tool that has
adjustable width legs to fit every bearing. I also sometime use a socket
from my collection as the driver for pushing outer races into the hub.
With that adjustable bifurcated pushing tool, out races are a trivial
task, and any good machine shop attached to an auto parts store should
have it and should be able to replace bearing races for a couple bucks
each.

I'm working with wheel bearings on hay racks and other farm machinery
that may be 30 to 50 years old and never been inside a building since it
was built. There I have some rust problems on top of tight fits, and the
hydraulic press is necessary.

One can do a rudimentary check for wheel bearing condition by raising
the axle and spinning the wheel. If you do that while doing a brake
adjustment (probably should be done at least annually anyway), back off
the brake adjustment so there's no drag. If there is any sound, like a
speed dependent rumble, go buy bearings before you bother to complete
the brake adjustment. The bearings are going bad and need to be replace.

Never replace cone alone, because the outer race has been damaged by or
is the cause of the damage to the rollers and the new cone and rollers
will be destroyed rapidly by the old damaged outer race.

Gerald J.



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