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Message started by verslagen1 on 05/07/17 at 22:22:55

Title: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by verslagen1 on 05/07/17 at 22:22:55

What do you guys think of this little do dad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x044r9woDc&feature=youtu.be

Should we adapt it for our wheels?
The stock bearings are only sealed on the outside so the technique should work for us.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by gizzo on 05/08/17 at 01:25:40

I like that idea. My ski boat trailer has something similar called a Bearing buddy. You just whack them onto the hub and pump the grease in. Works well. For the bike, why would you bother? Replacement sealed bearings are so cheap and last almost forever anyway, the originals wouldn't be worth bothering to repack.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by Dave on 05/08/17 at 03:34:40

574D494B4A74455650564D404341240 wrote:

I learned the purpose of the bearing buddy is to keep internal pressure on the wheel hub, and keep water out (as well as provide a way to grease the bearings). Evidently the problem with boat trailer bearings is that you run down the road on a 90 degree day and get the wheel hub warm - then when you launch your boat you submerge the trailer in 60 degree water.....and the air inside the hub cools and contracts and pulls the water into the hub. The Bearing Buddy has a spring that keeps a small amount of positive pressure inside the hub so the water isn't pulled inside.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by gizzo on 05/08/17 at 04:10:59

That's right. It's a drag having to wait til the trailer cools down before you can launch the boat. These things have that spring and piston arrangement that pushes on the grease all the time so water can't be pulled in because the grease is pushing back. You pull up at the ramp and back it straight in. Perfect. But the grease nipple on the end so you don't need to be always packing wheel bearings, that was the focus of my first post.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by LANCER on 05/08/17 at 07:59:32

Looks like a handy tool to have around.
How much are they ?

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by engineer on 05/08/17 at 08:31:43

Bearings are cheap enough considering their long life but some are a real pain to remove and install so a tool like that can be really useful. The only way to grease the bearings on my old BMW motorcycle is to remove them and they are a press fit in an aluminum hub. Removal and installation requires heating the hub to a fairly high temperature and the entire procedure takes up quite a bit of time.

I think that after removal some people drill a hole in the inside spacer and make a tool similar to the one in the video so that future lube jobs are quicker and easier. The grease flows through the hole in the spacer, into the void between the bearings and out into the bearings.

When I kept a boat I just periodically replaced the trailer bearings but they were an easy fit and the bearings were commonly stocked and were cheap.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by verslagen1 on 05/08/17 at 09:24:10

Yeah, this is a concern for me... I have 80k miles on each bike.
And I have a spare front and rear along with that.

The bearings don't come out without a fight, so we generally leave them there till they scream for attention.

So making a shaft with a couple of ports to squirt grease in where it ought to be seems like a no brainer to me.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by verslagen1 on 05/08/17 at 09:35:57

4D404F4244531316210 wrote:

Looks like a handy tool to have around.
How much are they ?

I think they are about $50

vs the trailer buddies are $25 a pair.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by Ruttly on 05/08/17 at 10:49:46

I use a 5 dollar tool you can buy at napa auto,it's a zerk fitting with a needle on it. You carefully insert needle at edge of seal, pushing the lip back and pump some grease in then move it 180* and pump some more in remove needle rotate wheel then do the other side. I use on new bearings cause they never put enough grease in them.

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by verslagen1 on 05/08/17 at 12:13:25

nice kit

https://www.amazon.com/Zerk-Fittings-Lubrication-Tool-Grease/dp/B01FOQJJSI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1494270545&sr=8-3&keywords=grease+zerk+needle

Title: Re: Wheel bearing greaser
Post by Ruttly on 05/08/17 at 12:53:51

Verses , you can buy them separately, it's the one with the plastic sleeve over it.