JBarca wrote:
H'mm Jimmy OK what you are saying is the inner bearing cone stops up against the nut and then the bearing acts against the seal and the brake drum is the slide hammer. Gently ratchet the drum back and forth and tap out the seal. Like the slide hammer puller. I could see this working and obviously it does.
Yes, that is the general idea. Only thing wrong with your interpretation is the part about "gently ratchet the drum back and forth and tap out the seal". What you are really doing is giving the drum a sharp pull off the spindle. One hit with the "slide hammer" so to say. Done properly, this single pull gets the job done in one swift motion.
When I was a mechanic (for a Chrysleer dealer) FWD cars with rear drums were the norm. This was always the way we removed the bearings and seals on customer's cars. I don't think I EVER saw a puller used to remove grease seals. OF course, when the car belonged to a customer, it always got new seals. When it belonged to me, I reuse them until they got funky, then replace. I've done thousands this way over the years.
Oh, and on the bearing packer topic, most old mechanics will NOT use a bearing packer even if one is present. It's thought hand packing is the only way to really get the grease in were it belongs. I've tried both ways, and they both seem to work for me. But when I worked at the dealership all the techs hand packed the bearings, even though we had a really nice pnuematic packing machine available. I do notice that when I use my bearing packer, a lot of grease is wasted. This is because the packing cone has to fill the ID of the bearing before it begins to push grease into the rollers.
One last tip: If you clean the bearings in solvent or spray cleaner (sometimes required, sometimes not), make sure you blow them out thoroughly with clean compressed air. Any tiny bit of solvent left in the bearings can break down the grease and fry a bearing. THIS I have seen on several occassions. ("What do you mean my bearing are fried, I just repacked them last weekend!") And NEVER mix different types of grease when packing bearings. If you are upgrading to synthetic, or even just changing brands, best to completely clean the bearing in solvent and start from scratch. Different types of greases can react negatively to one another and break down.
I myself always use a high quality synthetic grease, although my reasons are more laziness than anything. The synthetic grease is superior for just about any use, allowing me to keep only that type of grease "in stock" in my garage. I use it for suspension zerk fittings, wheel bearings in drums AND disk brake axles, U-joints...etc. you name it.
-Jimmy
