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repacking rear inner wheel bearings on '71 bus

[repacking rear inner wheel bearings on '71 bus] v Is it feasable to repack and/or add grease to the rear *inner* wheel bearings without removing the bearing housing as described in the Bently manual instructions to replace the wheel bearings?

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Reply to
Grape Daddy
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Grape Daddy

Bentley does get carried away at times.

Pull the drum off along with the wheel hub. There will now be a space between the splined shaft and the grease seal. You can inject grease thru that space by using a small diam tube. You don't want to overfill it because axle rotation will force grease out the seals.

If you must get at the bearings and seals, just drive the stub axle out with a soft hammer; there is no need to take the whole assy off the car.

Speedy Jim

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Reply to
Speedy Jim

Thanks; you just jogged a vauge memory of having asked the brake shop to do exactly that in my last brake job in '95, so now I believe that has been done at least once. Passenger side had overheated recently, so the shoes were completely dry/completely glazed. [makes me worry about the bearing seals melting] The driver's side was wet from greese or brake fluid [couldn't tell, slightly wet black dust goop] v I'll repack the outer bearings just to get a chance to replace the outer seals, and add grease to the inner per above. I'm guessing that original inner seal can't last forever, but where I live, it's rained daily for the last 4 weeks --triage on the inner seal to get the wheels back on for now.

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Reply to
Grape Daddy

This is what I did once on my 1973 VW Beetle:

1 Remove the axle with cv joints

2 remove the stub axle

3 remove the outer bearing cover

4 remove the outer bearing, but leave the race in place

5 wipe out as much grease as you can

6 get the rest out with B-12 Chemtool, but do not 'spin' the inner bearing

7 spray with pressurized air if you have it and/or let dry thoroughly prefferably overnight. The Chemtool evaporates rapidly.

8 repack the inner bearing with a grease injector tip adapter (not sure of the right term) on a grease gun, pack the hub (do not over fill) and repack the outer bearing

9 this is a good time to replace the grease seals while you got it apart

10 reassemble in the reverse order of dissassembly

11 torque the cv joint bolts to 25 ft. lbs.

Note: This may not be the best way, but it worked for me.

Reply to
Sleepy Joe

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