Highway 4x4

What does the factory pack the wheel bearings with? Where can I get some?

mysterync

I'm a little confused guys. I've installed probably 10 hubs on these trucks, and while you can get grease around the bearing, you cannot get enough grease to make any difference where it makes a difference. All your really greasing is the ABS "reluctor ring" I wouldnt think it would cause a ABS light but it could. Secondly, While the bearings are not "sealed" per say , How could a man effectively created enough pressure to get to the actual bearing components. Seems like the grease would set against the back of the bearings and around the sensor ring? Now this is just and opinion, I could be wrong.

trik396

Just throwing this out there.... is there any way to drill and tap then screw in a zerk fitting so we CAN inject grease under pressure? If this were possible it would seem this is the best way to go.

bczolone

I've often thought of this too, but I think the potential for just one tiny shaving getting inside the bearing would negate this option.

gadget.35-06

Or opening a potential stress crack in a steering knuckle.

Highway 4x4

Well, now isn't this great. So now we are not even sure if the grease even gets to the bearing and no one knows what grease we should use so we don't hurt the factory lube. All you guys that say you lube the bearings and it helps the bearings last longer, where are you.

mysterync

I'll grab one from the parts store one day and stick the bore scope in it to prove my point. This does nothing but get greese around your sensor ring which can lead to ABS a ABS Light.
If you dont pressurize the grease against the bearing It'll never make any diffrence at all. If we drill and tap the hub assembly with a zerk, Were just going to fill the sensor ring with grease and throw a code. These are non greasing hubs for a reason. I'd almost put money on the fact these will fail at the same mileage units that hadnt had this service. It makes no impact on the bearing life. About 20,000 trucks left dodge without adequate grease in the hubs, Those were all recalled. Most aftermarket hubs have ATLEAST a 90 day warranty. If you fill the sucker with grease and the parts folks see it, NO WARRANTY...this is just a friendly discussion nothing more, nothing less. I'm not trying to say anyones wrong but I've been doing this a long time and this is the first I've ever heard of this. Heck theres actully TSB's out about NOT doing this to a sealed hub with ABS...Abs is the whole reason they took out the grease zerks

steve05ram360

pull the bearing apart and pack it the right way... This guy did it, so can you.

http://s541.photobucket.com/albums/g...imon1/?start=0

trik396

Looking at those pics it seems you would be able to add a zerk fitting and grease those bearings under pressure.

Raspy

Seems like you could add a zerk, but then what? Just keep adding grease till the whole thing is completely full? That won't work. And it still will not get the grease into the bearing races and roller separators where it can do some good. It won't "pack" the bearing and it won't allow some open space when the heat begins to build up.

Another reason for not disassembling this unit, after seeing the pix, is that I see no way to set up the preload on the bearings. Do you just keep pressing it and feeling it jump forward to where you get the right preload? Seems they'll either be too tight or have some play with that method.

With the free spin setup you get better bearing geometry with the bearings spaced farther apart and you can adjust the preload with an adjuster nut. Simple tools allow a bearing re-pack if you wish.

Unless it's a boat trailer, with wheel bearings that regularly go under water, we should not just be pumping in more grease as maintenence. We do that with ball joints that don't build up heat and can leak out the excess. Normal maintenance procedures for wheel bearings is that they get replaced when noisy or they get repacked with the proper amount of grease forced into the bearing itself. This works for many many miles, usually.

Colo~Dirtbikers

Man you guys make me laugh.

I haul rvs for a living. Our fleet has prolly 500 gen 3 dodges. Maybe 100 chevs and maybe 100 fords.

I have met many guys with 700000+ miles on 2005 3500's and have greased there bearings every 50k thru the sensor hole and are still riding on factory bearings.

I met a man wife sleeper team the other night with 550000 on a 2007 5.9 3500, and the old man does his the same way. Its still riding on the factory hubs too..

2x4 and 4x4 share the same bearing. So it makes no difference. Yes the part numbers are different, but I have helped guys put 4x4 bearings on 2x4 trucks cause thats all the parts store had..

Here is how you do it..

Get an air blower rubber tip. Tap the inside of the tip so a grease zert can be used to hook up to your grease gun. You will most likely need a bigger thread size zert than whats standard, but napa has em.

You can grease the bearing with pressure this way.. Spin the bearing as you grease it and you WILL get grease into the roller cages. Grease will come out of the sheetmetal edges around the outside of the bearing. Clean it up after your done.

I makes no difference what grease is used. I use amsoil.. many of our guys use coastal grease found at the ranch stores.. Thats good grease and it looks like vaseline.

The grease that the bearing comes with is cooked at 50k, so just use any high temp bearing grease and youll be good.

The guys in our fleet who dont grease the hubs get maybe 250k if they are lucky. Lots of guys lose hub bearings way before 100k and start asking everyone what there tricks are.

Carey

And by the way... There is an o ring around the abs sensor.. When it starts looking bad, take it off and go to ace hardware and get another o ring. The abs sensor oring doeas wear out.

And be sure to spin the bearing by hand for a good bit after the sensor is reinstalled, so a abs code isnt thrown. By spinning the bearing, the grease will be moved where the sensor reads off of the ring..

This works every time, or you can just drive it about a 1/4 mile with the abs sensor light on and then the light will go out..

JP-4.5

I am real curious to get some feedback ffrom some people that are trying this for the 1st time? Sounds like a great method..

Thanks Colo....

Ramified5.9

OK, just Monday I saw this thread and happend to be R&R'ing my upper balljoints and brakes (this is on my '05 3500 4X4). So I removed my unit bearing assemblies and through the ABS hole, I pumped 2 shots of grease (M-1 Synthetic) with a grease nipple, the same one used to usually grease the center ball in the front CV driveline.

I did 2 pumps with the nipple pointing towards the inner bearing and then 2 pumps towards the outer bearing. I then rotated the hub a 1/4 turn and repeated the above steps. I do believe this works great, as you could feel the resistance in the bearing as you were turning it. I then cleaned out the ABS hole of excessive grease and reassembled.

I drive this truck 1000 miles a week, in the oilfield, and will report if I have any issues. I originally replaced the bearings at 80xxx miles and currently have 140xxx miles. The OEM grease inside was a bright green, and looked great, but you could definetly "feel" the bearings getting packed as I rotate them around while greasing them.

annabelle

How did you replace the bearings, as they are not designed for replacement. As I said previously, I have 247,000 miles on my original bearing (without greasing them).......the bearings are sealed and I believe this "greasing" them is just a feel good procedure. How could you have seen any of the original grease? How could you pack the bearings? The bearings are a sealed unit. Do you mean you replaced the Hub assembly?

1985cucv

i will be trying this so tap the rubber piece jam it in the hole and grease and turn sounds like a good plan.