Thread: Bearing Buddy

It's a game of thousandths of an inch. The tolerance among manufacturers is just not close enough to ensure every brand will seat good. That's my theory I finally came up with. And theirs grease residue which slicks it up. I got reprimanded one time for suggesting some expansion is involved during operation,that grease will not expand. That may be the case ....but some minute pressure builds. I think it may be a vapor pressure that builds from maybe grease off gassing or something. Definitely helps to use minimum pressure when you grease,also helps seal. If you can use something to ping it some it would help.Me I would just try to expand the cap a little and maybe ping in the hub a little too...gently all the way around,light hammer taps. A large bearing or other hard steel round object of the right size could be sit on the cap and hit a few times to expand it a little. It requires a craftsman's touch,easy as she goes...but anyone can do it.

It even occurred to me to maybe use one of the rubber plumbing couplings that hose clamp down as an extra cautionary measure But I have always been able to work them into a good fit.

Here's one more suggestion. Put the bearing buddy on top of your trailer hitch ball and use a block of wood on top of it and hit it with a hammer. This should flare the end of it and give it a tighter fit. I haven't done this on a bearing buddy but it's worked many times on regular bearing caps.
Don't get carried away with the hammer and over do it. It usually doesn't take a lot to tighten it up.

Hello: My buddy had the same problem. My fix for him was to have the tires balanced, I always have my trailer tires balanced. Then we replaced the hub and new bearing buddies.. He had to order the hub and bearing buddies so we used duct tape to hold the old one on until we received the parts and had time to fix it. I told him to remove the duct tape every time he used the boat and check it for moisture until it was repaired. After we repaired it he put the duct tape back on and checked the bearing buddy several times to make sure it didn't come loose again. No problems going on 3 years. Good Luck. O - R

Had the same issue a while back. Culprit was out of round hub where the bearing buddy went. Bought a new hub and all was well.

Originally Posted by Osnola

Had the same issue a while back. Culprit was out of round hub where the bearing buddy went. Bought a new hub and all was well.

I agree, replace the hub and the ptoblem should go away.

Thanks guys

My experience with buddy bearings is they are no better than wally world attwood . Running one of each now because one of springs malfunction on buddy .

You get it fixed? What was it?