The "greasing cartridge bearings" debate

Noticed this on the Maverick hub service manual:

9. We recommend injecting more grease into new bearing to increase
service life, especially in wetter climates

http://www.maverickbike.com/cms_images/file_355.pdf

Yep do mine all the time 2 min job!

I’ve always done it.Just be careful when removing the seals (not that the do a hell of a lot!)

i do mine once they start to feel a bit contaminated.

Well it works for keeping water out, and the rear bearings on my car had to be packed, but they’re open* to the diff so the grease gets washed out as the diff oil sloshes about allong the halfshafts, so no idea why they had to be done.

The logic behind not filling them is so that the bearings can roll rather than skip, once they skip they get flat spots, and skip again, and fail pretty quickly. Odly the place I can think where that happens most often in 2T engines when the big end bearings get starved of oil.

*there’s actualy a seal there, but it doesn’t do its job, no grease ever left on the bearings when theyre stripped down.

I do ‘We recommend injecting more grease into new bearing to increase
service life, especially in wetter climates‘ from the start, then remove, strip and put them in a sonic cleaner with some jizer, re-grease put back job done. Usually change for new(on pivots) every 18 months but my hope BB bearings have been going for a couple of years using this method. Someone will be along in the minute saying that this is ‘all wrong and they will fail because you have damaged the seals buy removing them‘ FFS

Another vote here for lifting the seal and repacking. Also, it’s not as much of a problem to fill them as the speed and temperature the bearings reach is nothing like their design spec.

My Hope ceramic BB started feeling a bit rough and draggy. I prised the seals out and greased it and it’s going well again now.
I do my Egg Beater bearings as well.
Never bothered with wheel bearings as they’re cheap enough to replace outright. I probably would if I was using ceramic ones though.

You could make a business out of buying cheap bearings and filling them with waterproof grease, then selling them on 😉

the rear bearings on my car had to be packed, but they’re open* to the diff so the grease gets washed out as the diff oil sloshes about allong the halfshafts, so no idea why they had to be done.

Typically the oil level in a rear axle sits below the level of the half shaft tubes, so if you were to put the bearings in dry, chances are they’d seize before enough oil worked it’s way along the halfshaft tubes to lubricate them. So precoating them with grease cures the issue.

Just make sure the seal that gets lifted is put to the inside of the hub/pivot/etc. as it’ll never be as well sealed again once lifted. That was the advice given to me anyway.

+1 rickos

Typically the oil level in a rear axle sits below the level of the half shaft tubes, so if you were to put the bearings in dry, chances are they’d seize before enough oil worked it’s way along the halfshaft tubes to lubricate them. So precoating them with grease cures the issue.

Thats one idea, but then they came from the factory with the usual ammount of grease in them, and the front hubs had no specific instructions to fill them with grease, but the rear ones came with enough grease in a packet to fill a grease gun!

But then again the midget has a funny rear setup, the wheel is held in place on the hub which only has one bearing (inner race is held onto the axel, outer race the hub, halfshaft passes through the middle) so essentialy the halfshaft is what holds the wheel from going floppy and the bearign just takes the weight! Most aftermarket tuners supply a more conventional double bearing hub to prolong the life of the halfshafts.

i wonder if you can buy new seals, without the bearings…

my pro2 is 5-6 years old now, i got it whne they first came out, and ive never touched it.
its preefect 🙂

Thats one idea, …<snip>

The extra grease will just be to ensure that people take the hint to grease them! Everybody knows front bearings will need greased, but a lot of people won’t grease bearings they think will get lubed by oil, when in reality they won’t.

As for the set-up, I always wondered where Ford US got the idea that relying on the halfshaft to keep the wheel on was good. Shame they they never realised it wasn’t much good for 2.5t axles, when they decided using an Explorer axle on certain new transits :-/