replacing front wheel bearings

[duramax]

1943 2N replacing hubs due to broken studs that were welded onto hub. i took off hub and said should replace bearing while i have this apart. i got used hubs for 6.00 a piece plus 10 shipping good deal i thought anyways i looked inside hub i took off in middle was packed full of grease the hub i received was not packed full of grease so is it supposed to be packed full or not? i packed the bearing with grease the old fashioned palm way. so should i pack the middle of hub full of grease or not?

 

[Bruce (VA)]

No!

The bearings & races need grease, not the inside of the hub.
50 Tips

 

[duramax]

why was it full? im trying to figure this out... i wished i took a picture but when i say packed i mean packed the middle of the hub you could see exactly where everything was positioned dangit i wished i took picture of it. could of used in what not to do.....

 

[Bruce (VA)]

"why was it full?"

Probably ignorance.

If a little grease is good, a lot is better.

Ever tried to clean one out after that grease dries?!
50 Tips

 

[Tom in Iowa City]

I suspect another reason that the hubs were full was because the maintenance person kept greasing the bearings, without "repacking" them. Consequently, the grease kept building up and eventually filled the hubs.

 

[old]

Common practice to fill the whole hub are with grease. In theory doing so is believed to keep both bearings greased all the time. I have never pulled a hub off any thing that did not have the hub full of grease. Shoot they sell wheel caps for trailers etc that have a grease zirk built in so that a person can in theory keep the wheel bearings greased but never pull the hubs off. Very very common on boat trailers where they end up under water a lot

 

[oldtanker]

True a lot of people will fill a hib with grease. Unless the hub gets hot enough to melt the grease into a thick oil like lube it isn't helping anything. And if the hub gets that warm the bearing are not going to last long. All filling the hub is, is a waste of grease.

Living in the heart of the lakes area of Mn I see a lot of people with the bearing buddies on thier boat trailers. I see a lot of em on the side of the road with bearing out too. I pull, clean, inspect and repack the bearings on both of my boat trailer every fall and my snowmobile trailer every spring. I haven't had a bearing failure in years.

Rick

 

[souNdguy]

unless the hub was shot i sure wouldn't repalce the hub just beacuse the studs were welded in. I've ground, punched and drilled out plenty of studs before. for some reason people like to tack weld them in sometimes..

i guess if i had alot more money than I do I might replace a part vs fixing it.. but I don't

soundguy

 

[Bob Purinton]

I've heard of people doing that to their automotive wheel bearings in the belief that centrifugal force would keep the bearings full of grease.

 

[duey]

I'm restoring a 1941? Japanese JUDY dive bomber..(See Youtube for a few details on a JUDY) One gear leg had a wheel on it... The wreck came from Papua New Guinea, having laid there at least 50 years, heat and rain daily.

The wheel was removed with great difficulty but the BEARINGS, both inner and outer, were still immaculate! The THIN coating of grease inside the wheel(less than 1/4 inch thick), still exhibits great lubricity. If the wheel was "good", I'd have no problem FLYING with those two bearings yet today, yes, they are METRIC!

So a little grease is good enough, alot is not necessary.

duey