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Rick
 
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Default Bearing Buddy Question

Gfretwell wrote:

Do you have your hubs & bearings totally degreased when you repack, or just
wipe out what you can see?



It is best to do a complete clean/repack job when you install the buddies. One
problem is lithium and sodium greases are not compatible. If you are not sure
what you have you might be mixing them. It is best to pick one brand/type of
grease and stick with it. Other than being a little messy this repacking job is
really pretty easy for a novice. Just keep everything clean and be sure you
work the grease into the bearings before you put it all back together. I
usually use 2 big pieces of cardboard, one when I am taking it apart and
cleaning, toss that, wash up and start with a clean piece for reassembly.
Inspect everything and look for bad spots in your bearings or races. A few
small chunks of crud in the bearings and you wasted your time. New bearings are
really not that expensive if you don't like what you see.
Be sure the whole hub is full of grease if you are using buddies since they
depend on a slight positive pressure throughout to keep the water out. When you
are greasing them up, watch the plate on the front where the zerk fitting is.
Just pump it up until the spring plate is near the front stop. If you pump it
out all the way grease will shoot out the overfill port and go everywhere.
Worst case is you will pump it in faster than it can escape out the overfill
port and you will blow out the rear seal. Go slow!
It may take a few trips and a few fillings to get the hubs properly filled.
Once they are it doesn't take much to keep the system pressurized.
The only down side is your wheels get dirty.

if your wheels get greasy then your seal must be leaking. The grease
point on the bearing buddy should rock back and forth if it does not you
have too much grease in the hub and you will blow out the grease seal.