Bearing buddy where does the grease go

simonfraser

simonfraser

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I have ALCO bearings on my Yard trailer, no road use
converted end caps to a bearing buddy by fitting a grease nipple
removed the outer dust guard with the old bearing installed
can hear the noise from the inboard side of the bearing, all good, assuming this is grease getting out as I’m getting lots in

Now for the new ones that I will need at some stage as I have only just started grease pumping the old ones
Going to remove the outer dust guards again, this time before installation into the hub
what to do with the inner dust guards ??
remove them too or the grease just gets past and exits ?
or compromise and drill some exit holes in the inboard plastic dust guards ?
 
Interesting idea, assume you are talking about single sealed bearings as opposed to a pair of taper bearings.
I think you need the grease to escape on the inboard end for your system to work, but wether it will exit past the inner seals or not without exit holes I do not know. You could just try one first I suppose.
A true bearing buddy has a spring loaded diaphragm to keep a slight pressure inside the bearing, so you dont have this, but I think a couple of pumps of the grease gun prior to each launch would do the job. Would have thought that you would never have to change the bearings if only yard use.
You have me wondering if your plan would work for regular road use. I use to use bearing buddies with taper bearings on previous trailers, pumped with a little grease prior to each dunking, no failures in 6 years. Never had the same confidence with the current sealed bearings that I have.
 
dpb said:
Interesting idea, assume you are talking about single sealed bearings as opposed to a pair of taper bearings.
I think you need the grease to escape on the inboard end for your system to work, but wether it will exit past the inner seals or not without exit holes I do not know. You could just try one first I suppose.
A true bearing buddy has a spring loaded diaphragm to keep a slight pressure inside the bearing, so you dont have this, but I think a couple of pumps of the grease gun prior to each launch would do the job. Would have thought that you would never have to change the bearings if only yard use.
You have me wondering if your plan would work for regular road use. I use to use bearing buddies with taper bearings on previous trailers, pumped with a little grease prior to each dunking, no failures in 6 years. Never had the same confidence with the current sealed bearings that I have.
Click to expand...

yes, single sealed bearings on my yard trailer
the 'seals' are dust seals at best, they def don't hold the water out, my first set lasted less than a year
without rinsing as i did not know any better :rolleyes:
the second lot has been rinsed for two years and has been strawberry jam greased for a couple of months
i am preparing for the third lot and see if i can get to 6 years ?
 
Dont force too much grease into the bearings. In my appy days at sea I went around with a grease gun and diligently pumped as much grease as I could into all the bearings on the plant I could find and got a right roasting from the chief when they all failed within 30 hours. Too much and apparently it burns and does not lubricate any more. Bearings are cheap at only a few pennies and pounds each. Having the plant idle and flying out spares by helicopter wasn't. Total sum of cockup came to a couple million USD!
 
I feel i have overcooked the packing of the bearing buddies too :cry:

I packed them until the spring was fully compressed and put the rubber covers back on, Drove 13 miles and found the inner bearing seals had both BLOWN and sprayed all the grease on the inside of both wheels and tyres, All over the axle etc etc, So i removed the rubber caps and found both springs where fully depressed.

My bearings are tapered bearings with the inner bearings having the integrated outer seal.

Well they are both blown and need to replace both bearings as every trip now means packing full, They empty themselves, So I've got to repack to drive home.

Lesson learned, Less grease is MORE!
 
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