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Harry Krause
 
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Default trailer bearings

Fred wrote:
I would like to thank everyone for all there help and suggestions. I
decided the best thing to do was to have my boat dealer repack and inspect
all bearings. As the season is almost over here, I decided to also
winterize and prepare the boat for storage. The dealer suggested I may want
to change my water pump impeller. The engine ran great and the water temp.
was normal. Do you think I should change it? The boat is three years old
with 115 hours on engine. Thanks

Fred,
The bases of many greases are not compatible with other greases
and can cause a breakdown of the lubricating qualities and premature
failure. You should remove the hubs and flush out all the grease with
a good solvent and re-grease with your choice of wheel bearing grease.
You can take this opportunity to inspect the bearings for pending
failure (look closely for signs of brinnelling or corrosion) but you
can not always see signs that a bearing is close to failing so I would
agree with Harry and replace with good quality (not Chinese) bearings
- NTN-Bower-Timken. This will at least let you know you are starting
out with new, quality bearings which will last you for years if
properly maintained. The cost is minimal compared to shearing a
spindle and spending several hours on Sunday afternoon on the side of
the road guarding your boat while someone tries to round up a new
spindle, bearings, seals and someone to weld the new spindle on etc.
Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.




Three seasons is about right for changing the impeller, especially if
the motor has not been operated in shallow, sandy waters, as inshore
fishermen often run their motors.

Is your dealer going to install Bearing Buddies or something similar on
your trailer bearings? They're cheap, and they'll let you keep your
bearings packed with grease. Have someone show you how to fill the
Bearing Buddies so you don't blow out the seals on your trailer axles.
It's a one-minute lesson.

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