Grease packed front hubs?

They were grease packed for years before the oil bath method. I had a truck that kept having front wheel seal leaks. Packed them in grease, problem solved.

 

I have had grease front hubs and oil bath versions. I prefer the oil ones myself. I have convenient drain plugs on the hubs and I change out the hub oil every spring and fall.

 

no problemems with grease packed, oil bath only came about cause it saves time on maintinace, being able to drain some of the fluid out and replace with new, rather than complete disassembly and re-pack.

 

That is the beauty of having drain plugs on my oil hubs. No partial oil thing. Complete, total oil change. Can have both hubs done in less than 10 minutes.

 

Most bearings need to be checked for proper adjustment, when the front bearings start wearing, get loose and change the alignment. The greased bearings usually do not leak and that will get an OOS inspection when the oil bath ones leak.

 

yup many do have drain plugs but for simplicity i said most of the fluid. mine has drain plugs as well.

iv run grease as well as oil bath, and i have never really noticed a difference in condition of the bearings on disassembly for ether that could say that one is better than the other.

i do however have a preference to oil bath. because grease packed should bearings should be disassembled and re-packed every few years. that is a lot of labor. also typically a wheel seal leaking is the first sign you may potentially have a bearing problem. a grease packed bearing will still leak out the seal but it can be harder to notice, if i do potentially have a wheel bearing problem i wan't to know right away and get things torn apart inspected make sure everything is ok.

 

We have about 50% of the 264 trailers with grease. The bearings all have about the same life expectation.

Positive with grease is you dont have to worry about the red plug in the middle going dry or plugged, wich will build pressure on the wheel seal and blow it.

Negative? You can't see if level is low, or the inside of the hub without taking the complete cap off. Still easy to find a leak by looking at the back of the wheel but still.
We use timken wheel bearing grease wich is pretty thick and stick well to the bearing. Critical thing is not to put too much grease is the hub, don't overtight the hub cap. Usualy 16 to 20 pounds on the nuts.

But really the thing that plays the most on bearing life is how you installed it, depending on the locks you are using.
You dont want to tighten it to much. Our spec says to torque bearings at 30 pounds and the lock at 300, untight, torque 200 pounds, unthight, torque at 100 pound final. Test bearing play and you are good to go.

Primordial thing is to clean every part inside that hub meticulously, make sure bearings are free from scratches, signs of overheat, sharp edges etc... pre-oil bearings a bit before pushing the seal in. And also, make sure the seal gets pushed in dry, no oil or water, junk or dust near it.

 

Years ago, grease hubs were the standard. Some drive axles even had seals on the axle shaft that kept the rear end oil from getting to the wheel bearings.

In recent years, oil hubs were the standard.

Now, with advancements in grease, lots of companies are going back to grease. Mainly for trailers that sit a lot. Advantages are less seal leaks, less rust issues, and some grease suppliers claim cooler running.

About the only disadvantage is that packing bearings by hand is about the nastiest job I can think of.

 

There is a tool for that.