Changing Hubs From Grease To Oil Bath

Your axle is probably a Meritor FF981 with unitized wheel ends. The spindles are unique to this axle model and so are the bearings. The bearings are a maintenance free sealed type that cannot be swapped out for regular bearings. Generally these are good axles/hubs. The bearings do fail around 1 million miles. I haven't seen anyone just replace bearings. We normally replace the whole hub complete with new bearings when there was a bearing failure. We have also replaced the odd complete hub for preventative measures, but not too often.

 

I would leave them be till they ware out . Seal has a much easier time keeping the grease in then oil .

 

I also have a unitized hub KIT-1478 for axle FF-986 and think it is a joke. Designed to ease assembly at the manufacture, but expensive for the consumer quoted $1,000 for hub assembly not including labor by local shop at the cheapest. I would assume there is a way to replace the bearings yourself, but have never heard of anyone trying. I would like to change to something I can maintain myself without getting rear ended by the industry!

 

I also have the sealed bearing on the front of my international. . At 914,000 the left one failed.. shop quote was over a grand for one hub assembly. I got it replaced I guess the upside was less than an hour in labor... The only way to convert to oil bath is to swap out the front axle. . I'm considering that on my truck.. I can buy a used axle and replace the oil bath bearings on it with labor and still have just a little over a grand in it

 

I had old volvo cabover with oil bath bearings, now I have 2001 volvo with grease hubs and freightliner with oil bath hubs.... really cant see any big difference as for owner, so I'd keep all as is

 

The difference is the sticker shock you get when your told the price of that spindle over a grand a piece and also your stuck at a shop that may not be able to get it for a couple of days. . So now your lost revenue makes it worse... oil bath bearings I think the last ones I had done was like 350 with labor and most ships can have those same day if they don't stock them and your back on the road in a couple hours.

 

agree, this is argument

 

I was always interested in the difference in rolling resistance between the two. Would seem the oil feed bearings have less drag and therefore run cooler......also, the oil should dissipate heat quicker than grease, but maybe not...