Bearings repack

[DouglasReid]

Originally Posted by Lins

Ok but then the shop foreman said you wouldn’t have had a failure if you used the EZ lube system?

I’m sure the place that did the bearing did a proper job but one of the mistakes a lot of people make is not ensuring the removal of the residue from the cleaning solvent from the bearing. You need MEK, brake cleaner or even baking the bearing to fully remove solvents like varsol. If not, any residue may prevent the grease from sticking to the bearing. This is what we do in the helicopter world for bearings that are lubed by grease and not oil.

He did not say I would not have had the bearing failure had I used the EZ Lube system. Like me, he said it was a good thing I did not rely on it or I would have had that bearing fail.

I too know how to properly clean, de-grease and re-grease bearings and your method above is nearly the same. For me, when Im done de-greasing blow them out completely with a blow gun to get the last of it out of all the cracks and crevices.

As it turns out we have something in common, I make my living flying helicopters, and have done so for over 40 years, both in the US Army and civilian world

[hjflames]

What kind of grease do you use in the easy lube system ?

[DavidBo]

Originally Posted by hjflames

What kind of grease do you use in the easy lube system ?

Gotta go to the axle manufacturer's website and download the manual. You'll find a chart there with the proper spec grease for your application. That's important because not all lubes are compatible, and if you want to try something different you'll have to completely disassemble the hub and remove all traces of the original grease. Keep this in mind with used rigs because you have no idea what kind of maintenance, or lack thereof, was being performed by the previous owner. In that case taking everything apart for a good cleaning and inspection is never a bad idea.

[cfiowa]

Originally Posted by Homebrew

Thumbs up to EZ lube !
Jack the trailer up, spin the tire , slowly pump the grease in and scrape the old grease out.
Never had a issue in 6 years.
We always take our 1st trip within 100 miles and Grease the bearings after the 1st trip.

Same with me 2014 cedar creek 36ckts. No issues.

[Lins]

Originally Posted by DouglasReid

He did not say I would not have had the bearing failure had I used the EZ Lube system. Like me, he said it was a good thing I did not rely on it or I would have had that bearing fail.

I too know how to properly clean, de-grease and re-grease bearings and your method above is nearly the same. For me, when Im done de-greasing blow them out completely with a blow gun to get the last of it out of all the cracks and crevices.

As it turns out we have something in common, I make my living flying helicopters, and have done so for over 40 years, both in the US Army and civilian world

I just did the wheel bearings on our new-to-us gooseneck. A couple weeks ago I found that the previous owner didn’t notice the rubber caps for a couple of the EZ lube dust covers were deteriorating and allowed water in to cause a couple outer bearings to corrode. 3 outer bearings and 1 inner bearing were replaced due to being neglected. Very easy with the hydraulic press at work. The second pic shows how much light we still have at 11:30pm this time of year.

[Mike134]

Originally Posted by Lins

The second pic shows how much light we still have at 11:30pm this time of year.

No rushing to get a campsite by 8:00pm, that was nice camping in Alaska.

[Ejs4029]

This is what Dexter Recommends.

[Mike134]

Originally Posted by Ejs4029

This is what Dexter Recommends.

That's good information. Looks like if the grease has a NLGI rating of GC-LB your good to go. I know Timken bearings have the same grease spec. for autos