Trailer Bearing Replacement

[NautiqueJeff]

Here's an excellent article written by M3Fan on how to replace trailer bearings.

Trailer Bearing Replacement Article

[gtxragtop]

Sadly this article has quite a few issues with it. Some plain wrong.

- Nailing hammer: Never use a nailing hammer. The surface of this type of hammer is very brittle and if you use it to strike a steel punch for example, it can cause a piece of the hammer to fracture off at high speed and possibly embed in your body. ( A screwdriver was used here with a plastic end which would not fracture the hammer head)

- A screwdriver is the wrong tool for this. Use a round steel punch with a machinists hammer.

- The method shown to pre-lube the bearings is WRONG. This does not pack grease into the critical areas. You put grease in your palm, hold the bearing at a 45 degree angle to your palm, with the wide end of the bearing facing your palm and press grease between the inner and outer race until the grease emerges from the other end. Rotate the bearing to do this to the next section of the bearing. When grease readily emerges from the other end at all points your done.

[TRBenj]

Well, whatever Joel did worked! I picked that trailer in Chicago and brought it back to New England... and then made a trip out to WI and back without any issue. All in all, I probably put over 3500 miles on that trailer between 2005-2008... Ive never had a trailer whose bearings ran cooler. Never had to touch 'em!

[gtxragtop]

That's because the bearing buddy WILL force grease between the bearings in operation. My point is that the initial packing method was wrong.

[MI-Nick]

been working on this project...read a tip somewhere to get the inner races out by running a bead of weld on the inside of the race...worked awesome. got both races out in about 5 minutes.

[DealsGapCobra]

Sadly this article has quite a few issues with it. Some plain wrong.

- Nailing hammer: Never use a nailing hammer. The surface of this type of hammer is very brittle and if you use it to strike a steel punch for example, it can cause a piece of the hammer to fracture off at high speed and possibly embed in your body. ( A screwdriver was used here with a plastic end which would not fracture the hammer head)

- A screwdriver is the wrong tool for this. Use a round steel punch with a machinists hammer.

- The method shown to pre-lube the bearings is WRONG. This does not pack grease into the critical areas. You put grease in your palm, hold the bearing at a 45 degree angle to your palm, with the wide end of the bearing facing your palm and press grease between the inner and outer race until the grease emerges from the other end. Rotate the bearing to do this to the next section of the bearing. When grease readily emerges from the other end at all points your done.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15564[/ATTACH]

You are spot on with the hammer. It is very common to grab the nearest hammer and start beating on whatever you are working on. I have to remind myself of this on a regular basis. As for the greasing, I don't see the problem with what he is doing. The key is to get the bearing packed...are you concerned that his method may coat the exterior of the bearings, giving the illusion of a packed bearing, while leaving the inside dry?

[pdxCC]

I just replaced my surge brake system and I have a question about how how they should get. First off, my brakes never worked previously so the hubs always stayed very cool. With the fresh backing plates how hot should the drums get during normal driving? I drove down the road for a test (including a few hard stops...) and they got quite hot. I could touch them, but not hold my hand on them.

Thoughts please? How warm should they be for highway driving? Is there a rule of thumb?

The wheels spin with a little drag and unfortunately I cannot back the star nut off any farther with teh new pads.

[AirTool]

I just replaced my surge brake system and I have a question about how how they should get. First off, my brakes never worked previously so the hubs always stayed very cool. With the fresh backing plates how hot should the drums get during normal driving? I drove down the road for a test (including a few hard stops...) and they got quite hot. I could touch them, but not hold my hand on them.

Thoughts please? How warm should they be for highway driving? Is there a rule of thumb?

The wheels spin with a little drag and unfortunately I cannot back the star nut off any farther with teh new pads.

First drive it on the highway for a while with NO braking. Then cost to a stop and feel the bearings. They should be cool. If cool, you have no bearing problems. If hot, you have EITHER a bearing problem or brake problem.

Then repeat with a lot of braking. Check temp again. If really hot (and was cold above), its the brakes. But I'm thinking hot means some smoke from the grease. Too hot to touch is not necessarily that hot.

I've seen brakes melt/smoke the grease before....that is hot. I had a hose on my truck turn into a check valve and one wheel stayed applied....that gets smoking hot in town but on the highway with no braking....cool.

[gtxragtop]

The key is to get the bearing packed...are you concerned that his method may coat the exterior of the bearings, giving the illusion of a packed bearing, while leaving the inside dry?

Yes, this is the issue. Putting grease on the outside will not result in grease making it's way to the inside where 46% of the bearing surface resides.

[gride]

Spend a few bucks on a bearing packer. Very helpful. I loosened my brakes all the way and then adjusted them when I put the hubs and wheels on. YouTube has great videos on this topic. I took mine to a dealer after I changed everything and had them inspect my work. It cost me a little, but now I know I do it correctly. Got my first torque wrench too.

[gtxragtop]

Bearing packers are messy and leave grease all over the packer which must be removed. Get latex/nitrile gloves... Put a big glob of grease (the proper grease) in your palm, cup your palm slightly. Hold the large end of the bearing at a 45 degree angle to your palm, press the bearing into the grease in your palm until it emerges from the small end of the bearing. Rotate the bearing about 22 degrees and repeat until grease protrudes from the small end of the bearing all the way around the bearing. Coat the outside of the bearing with a thick coating of grease. Coat the race with a thick coat of grease. Assemble.