Hi, I'm Dustin Hoover with Legendary Trailer Repairs and one of BoatU.S.'s
trailer guys. We're here today to look at wheel bearings how to replace them and
what to look for. If there's any damage involved some of the parts that we're
going to look for inside the wheels are the double lip grease seals, the inner
bearing, the inner race, the outer bearing, the outer race, the cotter pins, and the
grease caps. Some of the tools we're going to use today are a standard hammer,
standard flathead screwdriver, a punch if necessary, channel lock pliers and wire
cutters for our cotter pin.The other tools are going to be a premium marine
grease and an industrial bearing packer, this is going to make things easier when
considering where to jack the trailer up. You want to find a solid surface not on
the springs of the trailer and not on anything that could bend or give way
once the weight of the trailer is on the jack. We also want to check to make sure
that the tires on the other side are chopped and that the coupler is securely
fastened to the vehicle and the emergency brake is on. If the tow vehicle
is not available to latch to make sure that your tongue jack is down and or the
tongue of the trailer is firmly blocked so that it cannot fall while you're
jacking the rear of the trailer. You must always make sure you secure the trailer
on a jack stand, don't rely on the jack to keep the trailer up with you
underneath of it. Now that we know our trailer is safely on the jack stands the
first thing we're going to check for is that he play in the tire, shaking the
tire we should feel just a small amount of play which tells us that the
adjustment of the bearings is OK. Secondly we're going to spin the wheel
to see if we hear anything,
on this particular wheel we do hear bearing damage, it could be rust it could
be the bearing starting to pit but we're going to get inside and find out what
exactly that noise is. The first thing we're going to do is remove the dust cap
or bearing buddy, in this case we have a bearing buddy. The outer sleeve is just a
dust protector once the sleeve is off, using a standard hammer, we're going to tap the
bearing buddy as we rotate the tire. This is going to start to dislodge the
bearing buddy and allow it to come off.
Once the bearing buddy is removed we can inspect some of the grease to see if we
see any kind of contaminants. Using standard paper towels so that we don't
add any kind of oil products such as brake cleaner to the wheel bearings
we're going to simply wipe things off and see what they look like inside. We're
now going to try to access the nut and the cotter pin that holds everything
together. Simply wiping it off will allow you to see where the parts are and how
to get to them. On this trailer we do have a standard cotter pin that holds
the nut and the bearings together. So using your wire cutters you start to pry
the bottom side of the cotter pin, and once it's loose you can pry the cotter
pin out, by rotating it upwards and to the side. With the cotter pin removed
it's now time to take the axle nut off. Using a standard pair of channel locks
simply rotate the nut counterclockwise, if the axle is clean the nut should come
off with relatively easy pressure. Each part can be individually cleaned off and
stored separately so that we know where all of our parts are before
re-installation. Next we're going to try to jar the bearings loose which is going
to allow the outer bearing to come free and the axle washer. In our hands now we
have the axle washer and the outer bearing. We're first going to look very
closely to see if there's any shavings in the grease, with no shavings found
we're going to continue to clean things off with the outer bearing and the axle
washer. Now in our hands the first thing we're going to look
any kind of metal shards that may indicate the bearings starting to come
apart. In this case we don't see any so we're going to continue to clean things
and be able to visually inspect each bearing, rubbing your paper towel across
the rollers will expose the shiny metal and in this case we can see the damage
in the bearing ,which is apparent by rust marks and black pits in each bearing
roller. Our next step after pulling the outer bearing is to pull the tire and
hub. Once it's off if you leave it upright you'll be able to clean a lot of
the grease out of it easier than let it pour out onto the ground. This is going
to make the job cleaner in the long run. With most of the grease
removed, will now see what the inner side of the hub looks like. Right off the bat
it's apparent that the seal is damaged. The amount of grease on the inside of
this of the hub is also an indication that the seals have been worn out and
should be replaced. In this application because of the way we remove the seal,
and the price of the seals, there's no reason not to replace the seals each and
every time you repack your wheel bearings. Using your channel locks once
again we're going to pry the seal out of the backside of the hub, a little bit of
pressure will pop the seal right out. This is going to be discarded and we're
going to start fresh with a new seal when we reinstall everything. Now we have
access to our inner bearing, our inner bearing just like our outer is going to
be carefully inspected for any kind of damage. Right off the bat we can
see that this bearing has lots of rust on it which is going to cause vibration,
heat, and finally failure of the bearing. We have the bearings removed from the
hub now but we're also going to look for some other things that could be an
indication of bad bearings. One of them is the grease on the inside of the wheel,
that shows us that that grease seal was allowing the grease to get out, if the
thick grease can get out the thin water can get in, so a good indication of
something to look for even if you aren't actually doing the wheel bearings.
Another thing we're going to find here on the actual spindle of the axle we
have a buildup of grease on the backside of the axle and we have fishing line
completely wrapped around this spindle. Fishing line just like the propeller of
a boot can damage seals this is all the kind of stuff that we want to look for
and clean off so that we have a nice smooth surface for the bearings and the
seals to ride .Now that we've determined that both bearings have damage we want
to get them out of the hub. We can't neglect the races though because that's
what the bearing rides on. The races are clearly seen inside the hub which right
here on the outside looking at this particular race because of the bearing
it's also damaged and has pits on it so now that we're it's time to get those
races out. We're going to clean the excess grease out to allow our tools to
work better for us. With the tire laying face down the front of the hub is
actually facing the ground, we're going to use a standard metal punch, always
wearing safety glasses and we're going to punch the outer race towards the
ground. We work side to side to keep the race flat, once the outer race is
completely removed from the hub we can see it here underneath, again closer
inspection will reveal that it does have damage from the bearings. We're going to
discard that and flip our tire over to now start to remove the inner race, using
the same process, our punch will be lead on the inside of the inner race and
punched towards the ground. Working side to side, the race will slowly start to
come out of the hub. Now that we have the hub completely clean of grease, bearings,
and races we'll start the install process. With the tire laying backside
down to the ground we're going to work on the outer race. The outer race can be
put on the hub and started carefully with a hammer to
keep the race square as it goes in. Then using the proper race tool we're going
to drive the race down into the hub until it bottoms out. Often you can
hear the difference in the sound once the race is all completely down. We'll
flip the tire and be ready to install the inner race. The inner race is a
little trickier here because you can't start the race flat because of the outer
surface of the hub. In this case we have to be careful to try to drive the race
in straight again using our race drivers.
OK that sound indicates that race is completely lodged in, we'll try one more
time to clean the hub, and remove any kind of shavings that the metal races
against the metal hub may have created. At this point we're ready to install the
new bearings. We're going to use a Premium Plus multi-purpose grease, it is
a NLGI grade number two grease, that has great properties against high heat and
saltwater washout. Now filling the hub is easy enough to do and if we overfill it
when we finally install the hub, it will push the excess grease out to us. For
this particular wheel this is a 1 1/16" bearing, this is actually our outer
bearing that we're going to start to pack first. Placing it in the bearing
packer we're going to squeeze new grease into this bearing. If you were repacking
an old bearing, and the bearing were clean this particular type of tool will
push the old grease out and the new grease in. We're going to set our outer
bearing aside now and go back to working on the inner bearing.
Our inner bearing is now packed and it's going to be placed in the hub with a
smaller cone side down. We want to seat the bearing, and just kind of clean the
grease out around it. The next part we're going to install is a double lip grease
seal, the importance of the double lip is one side can fight the bearing grease
getting out, the other side can fight the water getting in. For all boat or marine
applications a double lip seal should be used.
Placing the seal into the hub slightly on an angle, you'll actually start to
impact the seal on the opposite higher side. Once a seal has started in the hub
you'll work in a circular motion to keep the seal flat and undamaged. We'll clean
off any excess grease which will also allow us to keep an eye on any new
grease that may come out, the hub is now ready to put back onto the trailer
spindle. The next step of the installation of the wheel bearings is
going to be to put the hub back together. Before we do that we have noticed one
thing, looking back at the spindle of the trailer axle we noticed that it could
use stainless steel collars. The collars are normally an aftermarket installation
which gives the seal a nice clean surface to ride on. This may be something
we install on this trailer at a later time. You're going to pick up slightly on
the wheel so not to damage the inner seal as the hub goes back on the spindle.
Any excess grease can be removed from the hub and installed back into your
bearing buddy or your dust cap. The hub is now ready for the installation of the
outer bearing which again we'll go cone or small side of the bearing to the
inside, and try to firmly place it back into the back side of the hub. Next we'll
install our axle washer, and our axle nut. Using our channel locks again we'll
start to tighten the axle nut and so is completely snug on the spindle.
Once we have it all the way snug then we'll do our adjustment to get the
proper amount of relief on the bearings. Here we have no play in the in the axle
whatsoever, which actually puts compresses the bearings and won't allow
them to move inside the hub the way they need to. So knowing where the hole for
the cotter pin is and the amount of adjustment notches we have on the nut
we're going to back it up one notch until we get to that hole, that's going
to allow us just a very slight little bit of play in the wheel and again take
the pressure off of those bearings. The next step is to reinstall a stainless
steel cotter pin in which we'll use our wire cutters to bend the ears of the
cotter pin over. The excess of the cotter pin can be removed so that it doesn't
interfere with your bearing buddy riding around them.
OK with our cotter pin firmly in place we're going to continue and fill the
rest of our bearing buddy with additional grease, which again will be
pushed out if the hub doesn't need it.
Starting the bearing buddy on square again we'll rotate the tire, until the
bearing buddy is fully pressed against the hub. The last step is that we're
going to add a little bit of bearing grease to the outside of the bearing
buddy, filling that cavity will just help keep the water out and the exposed
surfaces clean. After installing the external dust cap the wheel is now done
with the new bearings, we have just a very small bit of play in the tire and a
nice sound and no longer hear the bad bearings in there. We're now done with
the installation of this bearing we're going to move to the other side. I'm
Dustin Hoover we'll see you in the BoatU.S. Magazine.