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Job 1 - Bearing replacement

Marlboro

Marlboro

Member
Hi folks,

Boat is out of storage and time for some new trailer bearings. I pulled the hubs and removed the old bearings and races and seals. Probably could have used the old bearings but they look like no-namers and being i've never done this before, I figured why not. Just a few questions for the pro's on here:

1. No washer between the castle nut and the bearings, normal?

2. PO's set up was just grease caps and no bearing buddies. Whats the feeling on the buddies? My trailer gets dunked every time and I occasionally tow approx. 60 kms at 85km/h.

3. If I go without buddies, how much grease goes into the hub? ( I mean the cavity between the two bearings, do I fill it up?)

4. Preloading the bearings, I've read a bunch of different ways of going about this, what is the easy no fail way?

5. Old hubs are a bit worn but useable. Anything I should do with them while they are off? Stud threads seem alright, dirty as hell.

Any help would be great, just don't want to end up on the side of the road....
 
Marlboro said:
Hi folks,

Boat is out of storage and time for some new trailer bearings. I pulled the hubs and removed the old bearings and races and seals. Probably could have used the old bearings but they look like no-namers and being i've never done this before, I figured why not. Just a few questions for the pro's on here:

1. No washer between the castle nut and the bearings, normal?

2. PO's set up was just grease caps and no bearing buddies. Whats the feeling on the buddies? My trailer gets dunked every time and I occasionally tow approx. 60 kms at 85km/h.

3. If I go without buddies, how much grease goes into the hub? ( I mean the cavity between the two bearings, do I fill it up?)

4. Preloading the bearings, I've read a bunch of different ways of going about this, what is the easy no fail way?

5. Old hubs are a bit worn but useable. Anything I should do with them while they are off? Stud threads seem alright, dirty as hell.

Any help would be great, just don't want to end up on the side of the road....
Click to expand...

Like John mentioned, get your self a bearing packing tool if you have never packed a set of tapered bearings before. It won't hurt anything if you add grease into the center of the hub before assembly. If you use bearing buddies you have to make sure you don't overfill the hub. In some cases you can blow the seal out the back of the hub if you pump too much grease in.

How is the weather up there? I am going up the weekend of the 16-20 to move the dock in place and open the house for the season. I hear the ice has recently left the river.
 
One of the reasons that you probably wont be stuck on the side of the road is that you are actually checking the bearings and cleaning, and repacking. I applaud your maintainence endeavor. You can get water resistant grease that will help keep the water out longer. I will sometimes cool the hubs before splashing the vessel if the hubs are warm to the touch, to keep the warm hubs from drawing in water when the trailer is dunked into the cool water. I keep a plastic container in the truck and use it to pour water from the lake or whatever upon the warm hubs of the trailer. Just this last weekend, I came upon a fishing boat upon it's trailer, in the middle of the road, missing one of it's wheels, which was down the road in the ditch. The bearings had worn clear through the axle, which sheared off! When I asked the guy when was the last time he had greased the bearings, he honestly answered 'never'. I ended up dragging his trailer about a quarter of a mile with a timber lashed to the axle with my 'new to me' project truck, to get him off of the main road. I shudder to think what that wheel and tire would have done if it had flown through someone's windshield. I could shake the one remaining wheel back and forth what seemed like an inch each way. Wow.
 
I shudder to think what that wheel and tire would have done if it had flown through someone's windshield.
Click to expand...

I saw a wheel come off a car at 40 mph on a ten lane highway in San Diego. The wheel was struck by a Toyota Corolla at 40 mph and went up the hood and windshield and into the air maybe 50 or 60 feet then landed on the hood of a Ford Explorer. It was at the early side of rush hours and cars were everywhere. That was some excitement. I was on my Duc about 10 cars behind and watched it all unfold. Crazy.
 
Thanks for the replies. Having a wheel fly off would be horrible.

JT, weather up here is finally starting to get nice. 13C and sunny today(55ish F I think). No more ice as far as I can see, however nothing would surprise me after that winter.
 
Hey, there was a chainsaw involved too. I sawed a 45' in the end of a big timber ( like a 8x12 ) and drilled a hole in it closer to the front of the timber to fit over the protruding axle. Used a chain to hold it against the leaf spring and went really slow while I was dragging it up the road. Had to make a couple of relief cuts to clear where the fender hung down but it worked like a charm, kind of like a sled runner. I told him "It's what we Checkmate owners do" when he thanked me for stopping. It was a Bayliner.
 
1. No, should have a washer. You don't want the nut up against the bearing itself.

2. Used to use BB's but no more. My axles have zirc fittings at end and grease fills from the back bearing forward. I was just never sure if the grease pumped into the BB from the front was making all the way to the back bearing. Probably was as I never had a failure. What JJ Patroni said is exactly right. I blew out a couple of rear seals by over filling my BB's till I figured it out.

3. Many years ago, before BB's, we packed the bearings by hand and put a bunch of extra grease on the bearing and race and put them on. Never had a failure, but had to repack them a lot more often. We never filled up the hub. It certainly doesn't hurt to do it, but we got tired of all the cleaning when we repacked the bearings.

4. Have packed bearings by hand and by packing tool. Both ways work, but I am old school, so I still pack them by hand. I know they are packed completely with grease, when I am done.

5. Have you considered buying new complete ready to go hubs and be done with it? They aren't that expensive. Remove old hubs, install new ones, then you know your hubs are good (keep the old ones for spares).

Finally, you can buy complete bearing kits that have all parts needed to overhaul your existing hubs. They run about $15 per hub here. Those are bearings from China, in most cases. As far as bearings go, Timken bearings are probably the best (JMO), and the best cost more. Most of the time now, you are going to find bearings made in China. They are ok, but they ain't the best. If you decide to go with new hubs, you may very well get Chinese bearings. Our trailer warehouses here have many bearings on the shelves and they are all from China.

Good Luck!!
 
Not sure what type of packing tool you've used but the one I've got pushes the grease from the inside out and you can see the grease come through the rollers.

The trailer under my Mate has a relief hole on the back of the spindle. Any excess grease comes out there to save the rear seal.

Go look on YouTube, I'm sure there's how-to videos on there.

John
 
atc250r said:
Not sure what type of packing tool you've used but the one I've got pushes the grease from the inside out and you can see the grease come through the rollers.

The trailer under my Mate has a relief hole on the back of the spindle. Any excess grease comes out there to save the rear seal.

Go look on YouTube, I'm sure there's how-to videos on there.

John
Click to expand...


John, I have the same relief hole on the back side of the spindle. Not sure if that's common, but it sure is nice.

Just this week, a guy was killed by a wheel and tire on I-75 at my exit. Girl in our office said it came off a trailer going northbound and went across the median and struck the guys windshield on the drivers side, he was coming southbound. Sucks...
 
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