Quote:
quote:Originally posted by bobsals
OK guys, here's something to think about. How often do you repack the wheel bearings on your car or truck? If you are like me, never. Why, because most vehicles now have bearing packs and need no servicing. Even when we did repack the front wheel bearings on our cars (most of you over 50 remember this) we did it only at about 30k miles or whenever we did a brake job. My feeling is, if the wheel bearings are fully packed with good quality grease (after I did it), that it shouldn't be necessary again until you have to service the brakes. About a year ago I got into an e-mail conversation with a tech at Dexter asking about bearing repacking. He stated that they need to be serviced more often because of the extreme torque and weight that they have to carry. I wrote back and said "gee, they make bearings big and strong enough to take torque and weight so why don't you put heavier bearings on your hubs?" Guess what guys, I never heard back from him!.
As far as the Never-Lube bearings, be glad you have the EZ-Lube. I had the Never-Lube on my last fiver and had to replace all four of them. VERY EXPENSIVE!. The Never-Lube is a bearing pack. the bearing pack is two tapered roller bearings in a single unit in close proximity to each other. The total length of the bearing pack is only about 2.5" and less than 1" between inner and outer bearings which causes extreme stress on the bearing pack. Upon inspection, I noticed play in the wheel, I removed the bearing pack with my friends arbor press, and took the bearing apart. I found the races had scored pretty badly so replaced all of them. With the EZ Lube, we have about 6" between bearings which torque is much easier on them. This has been my experience and will never purposely buy a unit with Never-Lube bearings.
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Great post. My feelings exactly. I've seen a lot more bearings fail after be serviced than those left alone. We used to have two overhauls a year at the power plant. Disassemble everything for inspection and reassemble. Sure enough, when we tried to bring the unit back up, we would lose several items due to bearing failure. Dirt and grit ain't no friend to a bearing. I'll run mine until I feel the brakes need servicing.
And I hate those "CYA" comments from Dexter.