Bearing Maintenance

[JWalker]

Is this a good grease?
Allstar ALL78241 Timken Brand Premium Red Type Wheel Bearing Grease 16 oz. Tub https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K8VIAM/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_lSQ5ub02ZY51X
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K8VIAM/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_lSQ5ub02ZY51X

 

[Jim.Allison]

My comments assume you have the EZ-Lube system. If you repack on an annual basis or 10,000 miles whichever is first, you cannot go wrong. But here is my 2 cents.

The Timken grease is great grease, but you need to buy it in a tube so you can not only repack by hand, but also add grease with a grease gun. Page 13 from this Dexter owners guide will give you the grease acceptable to Dexter Axle. Is the Timken grease you are looking at listed there?

http://www.dexteraxle.com/i/u/6149609/f/Service_Resources/Bearing_Lubrication_Chart.pdf



Until you repack your bearings it is imperative that you use a grease from the list as the "soap bases" must be compatible with the grease dexter used originally. These greases are compatible.

$4 per tube or less is a fair price for wheel bearing grease. Over that you are paying for marketing hype. There is no magic in one brand versus another. It might make you "feel good" to buy expensive grease, but expensive is not better. You should be able to buy 10 14 oz tubes of quality wheel bearing grease for about 36 bucks. That is a lifetime supply.

I bought 10 tubes of Conoco Multiplex Red for 36 bucks off the internet and did not pay sales tax or freight.

If you have EZ lube you will want this grease gun

http://www.amazon.com/Alemite-555-E-Develops-Cartridge-Extension/dp/B009K530KS

Dexter recommends repacking every 10,000 miles or 12 months whichever is first. Other guys can do that but I'm not. I will lube with the ez-lube and I will inspect the brakes as required, during the brake check I will examine the seals and bearings, if I detect problems I will R&R every axle and bearing. Until then, I'm shooting a couple of squirts in the EZ-Lube zerk and enjoying my rig.

Skip the annual hand pack and all the time and expense and put the money into tires, you will get a better return on investment.

Is this a good grease?
Allstar ALL78241 Timken Brand Premium Red Type Wheel Bearing Grease 16 oz. Tub https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K8VIAM/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_lSQ5ub02ZY51X
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K8VIAM/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_lSQ5ub02ZY51X

 

[JWalker]

My comments assume you have the EZ-Lube system. If you repack on an annual basis or 10,000 miles whichever is first, you cannot go wrong. But here is my 2 cents.

The Timken grease is great grease, but you need to buy it in a tube so you can not only repack by hand, but also add grease with a grease gun. Page 13 from this Dexter owners guide will give you the grease acceptable to Dexter Axle. Is the Timken grease you are looking at listed there?

http://www.dexteraxle.com/i/u/6149609/f/Service_Resources/Bearing_Lubrication_Chart.pdf

View attachment 34805

Until you repack your bearings it is imperative that you use a grease from the list as the "soap bases" must be compatible with the grease dexter used originally. These greases are compatible.

$4 per tube or less is a fair price for wheel bearing grease. Over that you are paying for marketing hype. There is no magic in one brand versus another. It might make you "feel good" to buy expensive grease, but expensive is not better. You should be able to buy 10 14 oz tubes of quality wheel bearing grease for about 36 bucks. That is a lifetime supply.

I bought 10 tubes of Conoco Multiplex Red for 36 bucks off the internet and did not pay sales tax or freight.

If you have EZ lube you will want this grease gun

http://www.amazon.com/Alemite-555-E-Develops-Cartridge-Extension/dp/B009K530KS

Dexter recommends repacking every 10,000 miles or 12 months whichever is first. Other guys can do that but I'm not. I will lube with the ez-lube and I will inspect the brakes as required, during the brake check I will examine the seals and bearings, if I detect problems I will R&R every axle and bearing. Until then, I'm shooting a couple of squirts in the EZ-Lube zerk and enjoying my rig.

Skip the annual hand pack and all the time and expense and put the money into tires, you will get a better return on investment.

Thank You

 

['Lil Guy']

After working with high speed centrifuges and dealing with bearing failures on new bearings during testing and run in, the biggest problem we had was with grit or debree contaminating the bearing. Make sure when you clean your bearings to be in a clean environment. You don't have to be in a lab but you know what I mean. For those who can't keep the install clean and grit free, you're better off just pumping in some fresh grease. Compaired to the labor involved, new seals are cheap and I wouldn't poor boy it by using the old ones if you remove them.

BTW: Hi Dave and Amy. Looking forward to running into you guys again. Gotta go pump some grease in the 'Lil Guy'. He didn't come with a 50K mile warranty either.

 

[JohnD]

I'm sorry, you guys . . .

I get myself worked up sometimes.

And now, if only I can learn to spell . . .

 

[Jim.Allison]

LOL, I have never seen a seal that could even be remotely considered to be reusable after removal. I guess if you had to roll to the next town because you had a roadside bearing failure it might be better than nothing, but heck you could walk to the next town and back easier than you could reuse a seal. Thats how long it would last and you risk ruining your brakes, and if you actually travelled with it you would end up buying another set of bearings. I guess there is someone somewhere who has tried it though. I would not however replace a seal just because I removed the hub for a brake inspection. But if you EVER find a seal that you have doubts about, you should change it, they are just too cheap to take the risk. I would add that there is a big chance that a seal failure indicates a bearing problem. Seal replacement mandates bearing inspection, clean and repack. To me there is no doubt about that.

 

[porthole]

LOL, I have never seen a seal that could even be remotely considered to be reusable after removal.

Ya just need to know the trick for removal

 

[Jim.Allison]

I knew someone would try to reuse one.

Ya just need to know the trick for removal

 

[HornedToad]

I had a bearing issue on a boat trailer that plagued me for years. After the first bearing failure on my boat trailer, I replaced the entire hub myself with one off the shelf from Academy. Needless to say after being stranded on the side of the road I was even more judicious about maintaining the bearings, however, I experienced three subsequent bearing failures in almost as many years. It got to where I always carried a spare hub and still do.

I finally took it in to a trailer shop and the manager said the first failure had probably scored the spindle so badly that the replacement bearings could not seat properly and failed prematurely. I replaced the entire axle, for not much more than I had spent on all the hubs, and haven't had a problem since.

 

[porthole]

I knew someone would try to reuse one.

I did almost 20 years in new car dealer service departments, and I can say, not every wheel bearing service or repair got new seals. I'm not saying I did that, just my observations around the shop. And when I worked in multi franchise stores, the Ford guys were the worse for taking shortcuts.
The Dodge guys, well, lets just say .......................

The seals are actually very easy to remove without damage.

 

[porthole]

Something to ponder with service frequency. Now realizing these examples are not exactly the same, but they are similar.
Most front wheel drive cars have a sealed bering pack. Usually it is just two tapered roller bearing permanently installed in a dual race.

Quality bearings, quality grease and sealed. And, no service interval. "If " they go bad, the whole bearing gets replaced. Failures are uncommon. When front wheel drive first became the norm back in the 80's failures were much more frequent then conventional bearings. Could be that it was still a new concept or the fact most of those bearings were partially sealed ball bearings. Those bearing assemblies could be disassembled and the balls replaced if necessary. Since wheel bearing failures were usually accompanied by CV joint (constant velocity) failures it is hard to say which failure caused the other to fail.

 

[mobilcastle]

I use Mystek-the red stuff. Doesn't flow well through a grease gun packer since it is very thick & sticky. I needed to replace a wheel drum. When the drum came from lippert it was packed with very thin dark colored grease. I repacked with what I use and mounted it. If you use the ez lube system I am not sure Mysteck will flow very well since it is thick and sticky. The guy who owned my rig first used the EZ lube and their was grease all over the shoes when I checked them. I replaced the entire backing plate that comes with new brakes to repair. If hand packed correctly I don't feel they have to be done every year IMHO

 

[porthole]

I use Mystek-the red stuff. Doesn't flow well through a grease gun packer since it is very thick & sticky. I needed to replace a wheel drum. When the drum came from lippert it was packed with very thin dark colored grease. I repacked with what I use and mounted it. If you use the ez lube system I am not sure Mysteck will flow very well since it is thick and sticky. The guy who owned my rig first used the EZ lube and their was grease all over the shoes when I checked them. I replaced the entire backing plate that comes with new brakes to repair. If hand packed correctly I don't feel they have to be done every year IMHOView attachment 34818

There is a packer that works equally as well that is supplied by a grease gun. Two inverted cones that screw down on the bearing, grease gun applied though the center.

If the difficulty you have with a packer like I linked to above, tricks we did in the shop was to use either a vise or drill press. A stand alone drill press has plenty of capacity to use on the grease tub.

 

[Jim.Allison]

The only thing I got against Mystic products is that they are a Citgo product owned by Venezuela nationalized oil company of Hugo Chavez fame, "he dont like our country and I don't like him". It is a named brand NLGI2 Grease, just like every other named brand NLGI2 grease. No mystery in it.

As far as putting it through a grease zerk, that is why you need a 7500 psi grease gun. A common cheap generic grease gun cannot develop enough pressure to pump any decent volume through a zerk without making you sweat. Alemite 555E and Lincoln model 1134 are just a couple of professional HD grease gun designed to get that job done.

That having been said, I'm sure the mystic product is a good wheel bearing grease. But the guys that have not repacked their Dexter axles need to be sure that any grease they use is compatible with the grease that Dexter used at the factory. I posted a list from Dexter of lubes they say are compatible. Once you repack you need to stick with same product or a lube that is compatible with the lube you packed with. This is critical. If the bases are not compatible they will liquify and cause you problems when you need the performance most.

I was once an industrial sales representative and one of my products was lubrication, I saw all kinds of lube problems in my travels. One thing that I learned is that there is a brand and level of quality for every segment of industry. There are applications where only a few companies have a formulation that can be relied upon. In some cases a custom lube will have to be developed. There is a lube solution to any lube problem.

But I found that my main competition for mining, trailers, trucks, and the biggest part of industry was the name brand products, which included, Lubriplate, Lubrication Engineers, Texaco, Exxon, Valvoline, Conoco /Phillips/76, and Citgo/Mystic (Mystic took the industry by storm and was fiercely competitive). Every once in a while I would see private label and generic grease. But in large part the named brands provided excellent products for industry. There are a lot of bearings out there and every lube supplier must have a competitive product line in order to sell to industry. So if you choose a name brand that meets the NLGI2 EP specs that has wheel bearings listed as an application in the application list, and you reference a compatibility chart for compatibility, it will be a good grease for your application. BTW the most fierce competition that I had was Lubriplate, a close second was Lubrication Engineers. If a customer was hung up on Lubriplate, or LE there was no way in Gods green earth that the customer would change.

Today, I got nothing to sell, so grease is grease and I know a good wheel bearing grease when I touch it and see it, so I have no ax to grind when it comes to specific brands. But I can say that competition is fierce in the lube industry and the name brands are such that you can't identify much difference between one brand with similar specs to another. Infact they are probably packaged in the same plants to brand formulas. -just my 2 cents or maybe a dollar.

 

[porthole]

a Citgo product owned by Venezuela nationalized oil company of Hugo Chavez fame, "he dont like our country and I don't like him".

Same here, no use for the products or the country - but to give the devil his due, he (does) did have a valid reason or two for his dislike of the US of A.

 

[Jim.Allison]

He "doesn't" anymore, he's dead.

Same here, no use for the products or the country - but to give the devil his due, he does have a valid reason or two for his dislike of the US of A.

 

[TandT]

I feel my hubs for excessive heat almost every time I stop. I have 35K+ miles on my BH and I [think] I'm still on my first set, with two repacks.

All this discussion makes me think I better check the bearings before we head out this spring. (Where's Floyd?? ) Trace

 

[whp4262]

Ok, a real "green horn" question. What is the best way to tell if a bearing is still in good condition. Completely disassembling the system or is there a simpler way? Never really worried about it before. Until about 5 years ago, we probably only put 1000 miles or so on a year. Now the trailer is just a weeee(haha) bit longer and heavier. And we put on 4 times the miles. Just want to do the maintenance now to avoid problems later. Thanks for all the help.

You can turn the wheel hub and listen and feel for a rough bearing. Not as accurate as cleaning and inspecting them but better then nothing. The more you run a bearing the better off you probably are. It's not uncommon to replace wheel bearings on a small airplane much more often then a car. The most common problem with bearings on an airplane is dark color spots on the race or bearing. It's usually caused by electrolytic corrosion between the bearing and the race because the bearing sits in one spot for extended periods of time. This will usually cause pitting over time leading to bearing failure if not addressed. Aircraft bearings are packed when the tires are changed and once a year during annual inspection or at least should have been. I've seen this same problem with trailers and especially boat trailers even when the bearings were packed correctly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jim.Allison]

Keep track of the end play, if it begins to change you need to find out why.

 

['Lil Guy']

I watched the YouTube of E Z Lube system on Dexter axles. I didn't know you were supposed to elevate the tire and rotate it as you purge the system. Going to be doing it in a couple of weeks with Mystic JT 6 HT#2 grease. Dexter recommends a Lithium base grease and that's what they use. So any Lithium base grease that meets their specs would be good. However, if someone had the unit before you and redid the brgs with some other base grease, there could be a problem I guess it would be smart to just completely repack or replace the brgs on a used rig. And use new seals!