Wheel bearings

[SiverD]

Hello. Is there a way to check if there's grease in the wheel bearing housing?

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by SiverD

Hello. Is there a way to check if there's grease in the wheel bearing housing?

You can take the grease cap off. That will let you see the "outer" bearing only.

To see the inner bearing, you will have to remove the drum from the axle.

Andy

[rmkrum]

You can carefully pry off the bearing cap and see if there is grease on the outer earring. But this tells you little to nothing about the inner bearing's condition.

Don't assume grease is where it needs to be with a cursory look under the cap. Need to pull the wheel to really inspect it, and if you do, might as well do a full repack job and inspect...


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[polarlyse]

Before you take this job on go to the auto parts place and pick yourself up a small can of wheel bearing grease. Any name brand will work, Valvoline is a common one. Also need / should get a set of seals. One set for each axel. Not a difficult job but can be a bit messy. I just did mine a few days ago. If it's your first time there's plenty of DYI information here on the forum. Go for it. Give the brakes a good eyeball while you have the drums off.

[Kevin245]

Removing the grease cap won't reveal much. Conventional bearings should be removed, cleaned and thoroughly inspected and this requires removal of both (inner and outer) bearings and the grease seal. As mentioned previously you should pick up replacement seals and appropriate grease. If you have a bearing packer the job will be easier, but a packer in not required.

I repack my inspected bearings as follows:

Put on nitrile gloves.

Place a glob (technical term) of grease inside a quart size ziploc style freezer bag.

Drop one bearing in and seal the bag.

Mush (technical term) the grease thoroughly into the bearing while you keep your hands reasonably clean.

When you complete one bearing, remove it, add more grease, the next bearing, and repeat.

On a scale of one to five Rivets, I'd assign this a "1 Rivet" level of difficulty.

Best of luck,

Kevin

[rmkrum]

About the only thing pulling the cap would really show is the condition of the grease on that end of the spindle. Agree to pulling it apart and doing it right.


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[rideair]

Like others have said, pull the cap, see what you can see, that along with getting up under the trailer to look at the backside of the hub, can tell you a bunch. If the backside of the hub is "clean" (no grease blown out onto the backside of the backing plate), chances are the real seal has not blown out, the grease is good and your fine. If you feel the need to repack the bearings, here's a link to an old "Vintage Advantage" that has the process of how to do it starting on page 26.

http://vintageairstreamclub.com//wp-..._VA_spring.pdf

Enjoy,

[SiverD]

Thank you all for the useful information. I think we can do this!

[Ron A]

Here is a couple of links you may be interested in reviewing on repacking:

http://malimish.com/blog/airstream-m...axle-bearings/

http://www.timken.com/EN-US/solution...gs_English.pdf

Ron

[Rocinante]

What if we have those NeverLube bearings?

[Hans627]

Can Never-Lube bearings be retrofitted into older units?

[Bill M.]

You can add Never Lube bearings by changing the axles to axles with the Never Lube bearings. You cannot just put in the bearings. If I had the Never Lube I would inspect them once per year to see if the the seals are okay and the grease is not running out.