I got new bearing buddies after replacing bearings on the trailer. I can’t seem to get enough grease in them with my grease gun. This might be a dumb question but is there something special you need to do to fill them up? It acts as though the ball in the zerk fitting isn’t letting any grease through. I haven’t had too much time to monkey with it but definately don’t want another bearing failure. Thanks for any input or wise cracks
Mike
“Seahawk” 204CC Angler, 150 Merc
Did you hand pack the bearings when you reassembled the hubs?
The more we just complain…the more things stay the same.
Oh yeah…I used that little plastic bearing packer you can get an auto parts store but the hubs still feel warm after a short drive
Mike
“Seahawk” 204CC Angler, 150 Merc
Can you not replace the grease fitting on the bearing buddy??
No one knows if YOU are THE village IDIOT or not until YOU open your mouth and speak!!!
I dont know if you can or not. I just put new ones in as the old ones were plastic and starting to fit loosely
Mike
“Seahawk” 204CC Angler, 150 Merc
Be advised, a hub packed to full capacity will generate waaaaaay more heat than a hub packed with the proper amount of grease.
quote:?? How do you overpack a bearing with a bearing buddy? Grease always seeps out long before the buddy's stick all the way out. I checked the bearings after driving 75mph from s'ville to cola and didn't have any excess heat. I was able to touch it with my hands with no problems.
Originally posted by RDWBe advised, a hub packed to full capacity will generate waaaaaay more heat than a hub packed with the proper amount of grease.
Happy boatin’ y’all!!
Not an expert on bearing buddies, but I don’t think they let out as much as they let in. If you continue to put grease into a hub it will eventually fill. Roller bearings are notroious for “skidding” when they are totaly surrounded by grease. Same goes for an oil filled hub…Too much oil and the bearings will oveheat and cause problems.
My point I like to make to people is this: Adding grease is not always a good thing. Main objective is to keep the water out.
Use bearing buddies if that works for you. Myself, I like to keep it simple and just use the one piece cap, it has less potential for water to enter the hub. Another thing I believe in is using a grease that will absorb some water. Many of the greases available resist mixing with water. If some salt water gets into your hub it will stay seperated from the grease. If that salt water sits in your hub and is in contact with the race or a roller, it may begin to corrode and will surely cause problems in short order. If the grease has a good emulsification property it will “hold onto” the water.
Sorry for the long post, just feel too many people place too much importance on adding grease instead of keeping water and other contaminants out.
All the Bearing Buddies I have seen has a hole in them to let you know when they are full…Sounds like your grease fitting may be bad if it won’t take grease ?
After you’ve installed new hubs/bearings, and then put on a new bearing buddy, there’s a lot of space to fill. As long as you don’t see any grease coming out from anywhere, keep pumping until the bearing buddy begins to compress the spring. That’s how I’ve always done mine, and I’ve never had any trouble, and I trailer mine back and forth between S’ville and Columbia all the time.
Happy boatin’ y’all!!
quote:
DOCTOR Captain5785 Posts
Posted - 05/26/2009 : 08:41:01 AMAll the Bearing Buddies I have seen has a hole in them to let you know when they are full…Sounds like your grease fitting may be bad if it won’t take grease ?
quote:
hanapaa Posted - 05/26/2009 : 09:46:44 AM
After you’ve installed new hubs/bearings, and then put on a new bearing buddy, there’s a lot of space to fill. As long as you don’t see any grease coming out from anywhere, keep pumping until the bearing buddy begins to compress the spring. That’s how I’ve always done mine, and I’ve never had any trouble, and I trailer mine back and forth between S’ville and Columbia all the time.
Well that has to be it because I can hook my grease gun up to any other fitting around the boat and it works fine. I hook it to this one and grease goes everywhere BUT in the bearing buddy. It was a fiasco to get these new bearings on because the old ones were welded to the axel…don’t want to repeat that. I am also getting it ready for a long trip so got to get it right. Is there a certain type of bearing buddy that is better than the other? It had transparent plastic ones and I replaced them with the metal buddys
Mike
“Seahawk” 204CC Angler, 150 Merc
I expect you’ve already tried this, but… Sometimes, the little ball in the center of the grease fitting will stick. This happens a lot on the fittings for my lawn mower blades. They take a lot of abuse being under the housing. It can take a lot of pressure from a grease gun without releasing and letting grease pass. When this happens, clean the top of the fitting well, then take the point of a pocket knife or corner or a screw driver blade or whatever, and tickle the grease fitting ball… You don’t want to damage it, but, you can push it around a little to make sure it is not stuck.
17’ Henry O Hornet
w/ Johnson 88spl
You said something about the plastic or metal…go metal bearing buddy.