Quality trailer bearings

[Greg P]

Best thing I bought for doing bearings at home is a cheap hyd press from eBay. So much easier and quicker to replace the bearing cups in the hubs. Just make sure you replace with better quality hubs when you need too as I founfd the opposite with some of the cheap chinese hubs and they don’t let you get in behind the cup to punch them out. As mentioned you need to weld them to make them contract and drive them out. Just did my Dunbier and those original hubs were terrible for getting the inner cups out.

[Dignity]

Bought a 100pk of the black Rhino gloves from Bunnings ($20)

Mucking around with grease / degreaser / petrol makes most gloves fall apart - hence go with "Nitrile rubber" gloves ...... much better chemical resistance

Chris

Your Bunnings must be better than ours.
Ours will occasionally stick nitrile/vinyl composites but not pure nitrile, I have to go to the tool shops.

[ranmar850]

Well there you go...I figured there must have been some proper tool for it but always perservered with the usual stuff around trying to tap them in evenly without damaging the bloody things....
I think one of those sets will be my next purchase..

While we are at it is there any easy way to get them out...?..sometimes can be relatively easy and sometimes a b!tch..

Getting them out is a matter for a cold chisel or punch down the slot provided in the hub casting for that purpose, just work around them. As for installing--You can make up a set of drifts with an old set of races. Take your old races, inner and outer, and run the outer circumference around on a bench grinder. You don't need to take off much, just enough so they will drop in easily and not jam. Then after tapping the new race lightly all around to get it started, use the big hammer on the ground down races to hammer the new ones in, working your way around to keep it even--once they are well in, they'll keep going straight. Of course, if you have a press in your home workshop, it is even easier. Then chuck your new, free drifts into the toolbox for next time

[NAGG]

Your Bunnings must be better than ours.
Ours will occasionally stick nitrile/vinyl composites but not pure nitrile, I have to go to the tool shops.

New stock mate ..... last two times I looked there were no Nitrile gloves ..... blue or the black ones .

Chris

[Lovey80]

Nagg, you won't regret it. Since I bought my drift set I no longer dread having to do the bearings. It's actually a fun job once you have the gloves.

[gazza2006au]

Timken SKF American bearings all the way $21 a hub at Peps Auto, screw these Super Cheap Auto rebranded Chinese crap at expensive coin

[blacklab]

pppppppppppppppppp

[NAGG]

Nagg, you won't regret it. Since I bought my drift set I no longer dread having to do the bearings. It's actually a fun job once you have the gloves.

Doing bearings fun - removing disc calipers , dealing with old grease , degreaser , never seem to have enough rags ...... how do you enjoy that ?
Anyway ......
Knocked in a couple yesterday evening - certainly made the job a bit easier ...... more importantly it was much easier to tell that they were properly seated - you actually hear the tone (clang) when the race hits the inner lip of the hub .
I'll now try to get the next two done over the next couple of days before I head to Melb for work for a couple of days ....... running out of time fast ( Sat is a right off - dont get home till late)

Hmmm - on all my other boats , the job would have been completed ...... bloody dual axles

Chris

[NAGG]

Getting them out is a matter for a cold chisel or punch down the slot provided in the hub casting for that purpose, just work around them. As for installing--You can make up a set of drifts with an old set of races. Take your old races, inner and outer, and run the outer circumference around on a bench grinder. You don't need to take off much, just enough so they will drop in easily and not jam. Then after tapping the new race lightly all around to get it started, use the big hammer on the ground down races to hammer the new ones in, working your way around to keep it even--once they are well in, they'll keep going straight. Of course, if you have a press in your home workshop, it is even easier. Then chuck your new, free drifts into the toolbox for next time

A dog bone type boat roller works really well for knocking in the races initially - then I would use the ground down race .

I did have a boat roller that was machined at both ends to fit perfectly - worked well ....... if anyone has access to a lathe - makes for a fine drift without the cost.

Chris

[Lovey80]

Actually it’s been a few years since I was handling grease in large quantities since I went to the oil bearings. For them it’s just a matter of cracking the wheel nuts, jacking the trailer up. Rotate the wheel so the drain plug is down and drop a container under it like you are doing an oil change.

[disorderly]

Yep, but you still have to get the old cups out, strangely enough, the cheap Chinese hubs have a kind of notch in them so you can get something on the cup to hammer it out, makes it a bit easier, reassembling is a breeze, unless you knock in a cup backwards......don't even ask me how I know that!

Haha..that must have been fun..no lip to work with....

Been some great tips and advice on this thread....not near enough to make bearings "fun"...lol....but certainly to make the process easier...

[Noelm]

OH yeah, getting the new backwards cup out was a real treat.

[gazza2006au]

I just use a small socket reversed on a 1/2" extension bar to knock out the races takes 1min

Extension bar goes inside the socket where the nut would normally go

[NAGG]

Actually it’s been a few years since I was handling grease in large quantities since I went to the oil bearings. For them it’s just a matter of cracking the wheel nuts, jacking the trailer up. Rotate the wheel so the drain plug is down and drop a container under it like you are doing an oil change.

Yes , that always sounded appealing about the durahub ..... still wouldn't call it fun

Chris

[MikeC90]

I did mine for the first time a few weeks back. Other than dealing with all the grease (agree with Chris, never enough rags haha!) the actual work was smooth sailing. The old bearings themselves were performing perfectly well (running cool and no play) but the rear seals were completely shot, with the pressure from the bearings buddies, heaps of grease ending up on the inside of the rim and on the brakes... The axle, hubs and brakes are the original 1998 items I suspect, so the calipers took a bit of getting off but otherwise okay. I just used a small punch to remove the old races, a minute or so each - definitely more time to remove all of the old grease. Getting them back in was okay too, I just started with a gentle tap to get them square, then a block of wood to get them flush with hub face, then the old race to get them fully seated. A very apparent change in noise when properly seated, plus a bit of grease squeeze out from between the race and lip in the hub. I knocked the old race out with a punch, being careful not to damage the running face of the new one but I've since ground down the old ones to skip that step in future.

Unfortunately after the first trip, the hubs were rather hot! Not grease melting hot but too hot to hold a hand on there for any length of time. I was a bit baffled as I took care to use good grease, well and truly pack the new bearings, torque to spec then back off 1/4 turn and so on... Before the next trip I backed them off to the next split pin hole but still hot! After each time I had also checked the temp of the brake rotors and hubs, which were warm but not as hot as the hub so I assumed it must be the bearings - wrong! I had tidied up the brakes at the same time as doing the bearings, greased all the sliders, back of pads, adjusted the cable and so on. The cable was adjusted with around 10mm of slack before the hitch slider hit the lever, which was a less than pre-adjustment but seemed ample, with the cable being obviously slack to pull on. However... what I didn't account for was the return springs being old and not so springy. As it turned out, they weren't providing enough force to counter the tiny bit of tension in the cable, so after the first brake application on the road, they continued dragging a touch. Before the 3rd trip I played around the with the adjusters on the caliper end and the cable itself - bingo!