A lesson in wheel bearings

[SeaRay]

This could well have been written by Brett!!

1. Taking boat to South Florida this spring so figured I best change and repack bearings. Have not had a minutes trouble with them, but they are 17 years old and I've only had it a year, but I suspect they have never been changed. Trailer probably has less than 500 miles on it.

2. Pulled hubs, noticed a Zerk fitting in the end of the axle. Did some checking and found out it is a "Posilube" axle. W.C. Manufacturing & Specialty Company, Inc.

3. Went to Wesco and bought bearing kits.

4. Installed kits and seal and installed on axle.

5. Pumped hub with grease as instructed. Grease came out back seal!!!

6. Went to NAPA and bought new seals. Reinstalled one seal and checked. Grease came out back seal.

7. Read up a bit on this axle and discovered I needed dual rubber seals, would have thought the ones from Wesco would have right kind.

8. Went on line to https://trailerparts.com/?SID=b7e185...2b404dcd8ead52 and ordered the bearing kits which included the cups and rubber plugs along with a tub of marine grease, 2 grease cartridges and 2 extra dual rubber seals.

9. After I ordered the parts, I browsed around the webiste and discovered I could have gotten the entire hub assembled with bearings, seals and grease for about what all the other stuff I ordered cost!! ($23 each hub)

10. I decided at that price I would order 2 hubs and have them as back up in case I needed them down the road.

11 The bearing kits came in along with 2 extra seals which, today, I installed on the axles with the bearings I got earlier. Pumped them full of grease. Noticed some came out the back when I started, but I continued to rotate the hub while I pumped in grease, and sure enough, the grease made it's way to the front which told me the entire hub was lubed. Wiped off the excess grease, put the caps and plugs on and will road test next week.

12. After not changing wheel bearings in many years, I can now do it blindfolded. Hope I don't have too.

[Countryboy N.C.]

I had problems with NAPA seals myself last year, I put new seals in my axles and when I pumped the grease in it came out the back, took it down the road and it leaked a lot of grease out! Had to take them back out, went to NAPA, they didn't know what was wrong, then I came back home found the old ones, they were made
different inside, went back to NAPA and showed them what I found, they didn't have the right ones, had to go to a trailer place to get the right one.
If you look in side the original seals they had a spring inside the rubber around where it runs on the axle, the ones NAPA sells doesn't have that spring and want seal off on the axle.

[Fisholishous]

Great story Ray! I prefer to grease my boat trailer wheel bearings every month or so. When I notice more grease than usual being ejected from the back side of the hub (slung up on boat when towing), I go ahead and replace the seal. Knock on wood I've only had one bearing go bad in the last 20 years, and that one I caught early by inspection (wheel kept getting loose on hub, castle nut wouldn't stay tight). One thing I like about the torsion axles is that you can knock out the entire spindle and insert a new one. When a bearing goes bad, it can scar the spindle and mess it up. My buddy Stanley recently had to replace an entire axle due to a bearing going bad and destroying the spindle.

[STUMP HUNTER]

Something we all need to keep checked. CAN BE A PAIN BUT NOT NEAR AS BAD AS TROUBLE ON THE ROAD SIDE!!

[MThook]

ray I have the same style axle, I think the key is to spin the wheel while pumping the grease in. There's only on hole in the axle so the pressure will build. The hard part is having the extra hands to do both.

[MidHillbilly]

I have bearings and seals like that on my deck boat. EZ lube is what they are called on my trailer. I usually only take that boat from a storage shed to the ramp a few hundred yards away. Since I don't move it much and at only 10 mph, I got lax about pumping grease in the bearings (OK, maybe just a bit lazy, too). Put the boat in one time and when the boat came off the trailer, one of the wheels came floating off! It is a dual axle trailer, so no real problem, luckily. Lesson learned, even if you do not use trailer often, do not get lazy and keep the bearings lubed. My dad taught me better than that.
I should add that those EZ lube type spindles and bearings normally use double seals with the springs as described earlier. I suspect this is because of higher grease pressure needed at the seal to force grease through the bearings to the front of the hub. I did occasionally pump a few squirts of grease but not enough to get good grease all the way to the front bearing.

[MThook]

The bearing races probably rusted apart. The best thing we do is run the trailer after a dunk in the lake, it drys most of the water out of the hub.
I envy the couple hundred yards to the water, it's almost an hour drive for me

I have bearings and seals like that on my deck boat. EZ lube is what they are called on my trailer. I usually only take that boat from a storage shed to the ramp a few hundred yards away. Since I don't move it much and at only 10 mph, I got lax about pumping grease in the bearings (OK, maybe just a bit lazy, too). Put the boat in one time and when the boat came off the trailer, one of the wheels came floating off! It is a dual axle trailer, so no real problem, luckily. Lesson learned, even if you do not use trailer often, do not get lazy and keep the bearings lubed. My dad taught me better than that.
I should add that those EZ lube type spindles and bearings normally use double seals with the springs as described earlier. I suspect this is because of higher grease pressure needed at the seal to force grease through the bearings to the front of the hub. I did occasionally pump a few squirts of grease but not enough to get good grease all the way to the front bearing.

[Inkdabber]

Good stuff Ray, sorry for all the aggravation, but good lessons learned. I too, am a believer in having at least one fully assembled hub as a spare.

[ofishlbizzness]

Northern Tool has most any size hub and bearing assembly in stock. Or they can order for ya. I got my two last spring for bout 80.00 total. Snatch old ones off , clean up the spindle and attach new ones. One thing is dont pump lot of grease into the hubs. I f bearings are packed right you wont need a lot of excess grease in there.

[SeaRay]

John, I had looked at the Northern Tool hubs, but this website, https://trailerparts.com/, had my hubs for $22 each. I got them in yesterday and they look good to me. The website was the first place I could find the hub caps with the rubber cover plugs like my original ones have.
Ray