Trailer Bearings

[Scottnojack]

Hi guys it's time for me to change the bearings on the trailer. I have never done them before. Can someone explain to me what to do? :D

Thanks in advance,

Scotty

[Feral]

Friday evening
Buy carton of grog
Get 3 mates who have also never done it before over to offer advice

Saturday morning
Once mates arrive, go down to repco to buy trailer bearings - take a punt on "holden"

Go back home, have a few brewski's, pull wheels off trailer. Realise that drum brakes are welded on, go on scrounge around neighbours for a brake drum puller.
Have a few more Brewski's

Saturday arvo, having successfully got brake drums off, pull off hub. Belt old bearing seats out of hub with an old screw driver, getting grease everywhere, sticking screwdriver through foot, and belting hand holding screw driver several times in process.

Ok go to fit new bearings, and realise that punt should have been "ford"

Load up mates, back to Repco for right bearings.

Get home, realise that a bit of axle grease is needed, once again scrounge neighbours for some axle grease, realise your out of Brewski's do a quick run down the local bottlo for another carton.

Have a few more Brewski's, realise it is to dark to see what you are doing, so retire with mates to the lounge room to finish off carton.

Sunday
Have a panadol sandwich for breakfast.
Stagger outside to see trailer parts scattered everywhere, and remember you were only half way through doing the bearings. Have the last Brewski to console yourself.

Belt new bearing seats into hubs, each blow threatening to lift the top of your head off. Pack new bearings with grease, covering self and concrete driveway in process.

Fit bearings, the realise that pulling the brake drums off yesterday bent the brake shoe mounts, so 10 more minutes of hammering, more top of head lifting, and you get the brakes refitted, then you cant remember where you put those brake drums, 10 minutes of scrounging through that long grass you should have mown a month ago retrieves the brake drums.


Wheels fitted, its Sunday arvo, so you decide to go down the ramp to "try her out" to at least get some fishing in for the weekend.

When you get there you have grease all over the wheels, tossed up onto your lovely fibreglass hull, and you realise that packing those bearings and hub solid with axle grease was not the brightest move.

Anyway its all done, sweet as pie! saved yourself heaps on the $100 the local mechanic would have charged you to do the job friday afternoon,........ so you could have fished all weekend, .......only cost you $60 in grog, ......$100 for four bearing sets,....... you owe the neghbour for a kilo tin of axle grease, .......and a brake drum puller you just cant find in that jungle you call a lawn.

[gunna]

;D ;D ;D ;D Very good Feral ;D ;D ;D ;D

Scotty - there might be something here to help.
http://www.championtrailers.com/techsup.html

Search the Net - there are some very good instructions somewhere - I had them now can't find them.

[blaze]

here is a piece Idid some time back on triler bearings

Trailer maintenance
Well its probable the time of the year where you should be thinking about doing some annual maintenance on the boat trailer
Where to start
I always start with the wheels, tyres and axle assemble
Wheel bearings
First loosen the wheel nuts and jack up and SUPPORT the axle of the wheel you are working on.
Remove the wheel, then remove the dust cover on the hub. You will then find a castellated nut with a split pin , remove the split pin and then undo the nut. Now the hub will come off the axle. With some old cloth remove as much excess grease as you can from the hub and the axle. At this time you may need to remove the seal from the rear of the hub to access the inner bearing. Once both bearings are removed all components will need to be cleaned (I use petrol but take extreme care). If you have access to a compressed air it is a good idea to blow dry the parts making sure while doing the bearing cone it doesn’t spin as this can damage the bearing.
When checking for wear in the bearings you need to look between the rollers of the Bearing cone to the inner surface as this is a place that failure will show up as pits in the surface, also check the surface of the cup (the piece in the hub).
If any components are suspect they will need to be replaced.
ALWAYS REPLACE THE SEAL
So now we will have to repack our bearings, new ones or the ones we just inspected
Grease needs to be a marine grade grease that is recommended for your application, unbraked trailer, drum brakes or disk brakes (the reason for this is all greases have a different melting point and depending on brake type the temp of the bearings will differ)
You will need to palm the grease through the rollers of the bearing cone until it comes out the other side so the bearing is full of grease between the rollers. Now smear the grease around the outside of the cone then put a smear of grease around the cups and also lubricate the seal. Now fit the inner bearing and seal. DO NOT FILL THE HUB WITH GREASE AS THIS CAN CAUSE PREMATURE FAILURE FROM OVER HEATING)
Now fit the hub back on the axle and fit the out bearing then the washer and then the nut.
Now do the nut up until it is loading the bearing (you can feel this by rotating the hub).
Now back off the nut until the spit pin fits.
There is no need to fill the dust cap with grease.
Replace dust cap and wheel.
Now you have 1 wheel to go or maybe 5 more wheels, once you have done this a few times it will take about 15 minutes a wheel.
It always pays to recheck bearing preload and wheel nut tension after 10km.

cheers
blaze
ps
leave the booze alone while doing the job, have a coldie later

[lippa]

feral's right, apart than the fact you need a mate who's got a mechanic mate and he's seen him do it before. 8-)

[ribbit]

Best advice I can give after 20 yrs in Auto accessories game is this , DONT buy the cheap premade bearing kits that supercheap and most auto shops have. Specify you want japanese bearings ie: Nsk,toyo, tinkem etc All madeup kits I know of that sell for $15-20 have chinese bearings and they are crap. It will cost you $22-30 to buy jap bearings and a seal.
Chinese use crap steel and hardening wears off and fail .
Peter

[Scottnojack]

Thanks for all the help guys. Doing them today so will let you know how I go.

Scott

[griz066]

Sounds like you speak from experiencs there Feral 8-)