Wheel bearings
When you are checking your wheel bearings what are you looking for specifically on the bearings to see if they need to be replaced or just repacked and how often do they usually need to be replaced if...
Forum Discussion
RJsfishin wrote:
You can use a little logical thinking in the case of wheel bearings.
In some places, tapered roller bearings DO require a slight preload, such as pinion bearings. And that is tolerable only because they run in oil.
Any greased bearing w/ zero clearance or preload on it, in theory has no room for grease, therefore will suffer an early failure. This was proven when disc brakes first came out, and a preload was called for to keep the brakes from dragging. But there was massive bearing failure because of the "NO ROOM FOR GREASE" A year (or less) later the preload spec was dropped, and so did the bearing failure.
NEVER run a preload on a greased bearing, it will fail from lack of lubrication.
Over 100 ft. lbs of torque on a pinion bearing is not slight.
As an example of your no grease theory, my F53 with grease packed front wheel bearings has been running for 92K miles with preloaded bearings. The OEM bearings failed at 38K miles, they were loose.
You are right about over torqued bearings on the new disk brakes. I was working in the auto industry when that happened. Ford specked the torque at 15 ft. lbs. and they failed. As you indicated, the specs was DROPPED, but you didn't include the whole story. The specs was DROPPED to a lesser number, but still preloaded and all was well.
Your mileage may vary.
Richard
