Packed the bearings leaving Austin TX to back to the 50s Minnesota. Minding our own business ambling along towards Kansas city. Car make a little lurch to the right , hmmm , then the 53 wagon does a big Smokey lurch to the right , ok we better stop. Luckily a small shoulder. Oh oh bearing welded to the spindle solid. Luckily a buddy in the convoy was trailering his two coupe’s. off with the hemi powered model A on with the 53. Next stop orielys. What a bitch to gas cut chisel the bearing off. Ok let’s replace both bearings , nope nada nothing , only one side available for 2 hr wait. So one side it is then. We got er done but what a mission, when you are in isolated podunk iowa.Plus a tornado and failed fuel pump . Oh the fun of looong road trips. But with 12 cars on the road for 5 days we had a blast.
My 59 Ford welded the outer bearing to the spindle. I have been packing wheel bearings since the 1960s. I pack them full, spin them, pack them fuller. The owner of a chain of bearing supply stores here told me they should not be packed full but I do it . He likened too much grease to wading in the ocean. The water resists your movement and he said too much grease offers a similar resistance and the bearing over heats. I dont know if thats true but thats what he said.
I've done it this way for the last 65 years and not had one fail. Only difference I can see is, there weren't any of these fancy rubber gloves when I started packing bearings.
As far as the outer race goes, don't even consider reusing it. look inside the hub from the back side of where that race is and you will usually see the edge of the race sticking out far enough that you can catch it with a punch and work your way around and drive it out. It takes a good punch, not one of those cheap ones. You don't have to hit it too hard normally just solid and work around so it pushes out evenly. I've knocked hundreds of them out that way over he past 65 years. As far as packing the bearing I've packed an untold number of wheel bearings by putting a glob of wheel bearing grease in the palm of my off hand and pulling the bearing through the grease to push the grease through the rollers and out the other side. You don't roll the bearing in the grease, you scoop the grease through the bearing. I did that on every customer brake job for years and have done it on my own bearings since I was 16 and have never had an issue with a good bearing that I packed that way. NEVER FRIGGING WASH A BEARING THAT YOU INTEND TO USE AGAIN. I know the spit and whittle club members say that they wash every wheel bearing but those guys are usually the ones who have bearing trouble because the solvent never dries and the grease doesn't stick to the bearing. I clean them up with a clean shop rag and wipe the dirty grease off as it is pushed out by clean grease until the dirty grease is gone.
That guy is trying to sell a bearing packer and not showing how to properly pack a bearing, you have to drag the bearing through the grease in the palm of your hand to push the grease through the rollers and have it come out at the other end of the cage and inner race.
If this is the case, why did the bearing fail? He stated both the cup and the space between the inner and outer bearing was packed full. There seems to be a lot of people that think they can also skip cleaning out the old grease and skip inspecting the bearing rollers and races before shoving more grease into a bearing, that often ends in a failure. I worked one place (for a very short time) where the owner thought it was OK to pull the bearing out of the hub, shove them into the bearing packer and just pump more grease into the bearing. According to him, the new grease would displace the contaminates from the bearings. The concept of inspecting the condition of the bearing never occurred to him. His shop had a history of a higher number of failed bearings. I have an old bearing packer. Its a double cone with a drilled shaft with a cert fitting. You place the bearing against the inside of the outer cone, spin the inner cone down tight, then pump wheel bearing grease into the fitting. The grease comes into the bearing from the narrow end. When the grease comes out all the way around all the bearing rollers (no grease gaps) on the large end of bearing, it is properly packed. Then you coat the outside of the bearing with grease, then a coat of grease onto the outer bearing race. Do both bearings on the hub/drum this way, then assemble to specs. No need to add more grease anyplace. I clean, inspect the bearing conditions, replace any bearing and outer race (as as single unit) that may be questionable, then I re-do my wheel bearing repack ever other year, weather they need it or not. If I plan to do a long trip (7K-8 K miles), I will probably add a wheel bearing repack to the before trip maintenance preparations. I have not had a wheel bearing failure (on bearings I can repack) on the road in 40 years, and that represents a lot of miles. My wife's car has the sealed bearings. I hate them, those bearing have been replaced, but they usually give you a noisy warning a couple months before they become a problem.
I went back and I could not see where he said he packed the cap with grease. In all my years of dealing with wheel bearings , I have seen the little outer bearing fail way more times than the inner bearing. I, too, pack bearings as you do and even have that same bearing packer . But I still say if he had packed the cap, he would have made it to his meet! His bearing would still need replaced as the extreme heat generated was due to bearing failure. I just pack the bearings and the cap, I do not fill the void between the bearings, unless it is on an implement that has a grease fitting. Bones
As far as tightening the nut on the spindle, The same auto shop teacher who taught me how to pack a wheel bearing in 1962 taught me how to tighten the nut on the spindle at the same time his direct quote that I follow to this day was "NEITHER TIGHT NOR LOOSE" For the past 63 years I have tightened the nut up to get all the slack out, backed it off and just tightened it down to where it stops and not tighten it more than enough to get the cotter key in. Never any tighter than that. I have never torqued a preload in a wheel bearing and again I do not have bearing problems. The grease is never going to flow from the middle of the hub to the bearing and that is a waste of grease, filling the cap does push grease into the bearing the way you should have done when you packed the bearing.
Would it be possible to drill 4 small holes through the drum hub so that a punch could be used to knock the race out from the back of the drum?
Looks like a 40 Ford style brakes. The race can be knocked out from behind of the hub rather easily. Not sure why the OP can’t see the ridge, and I think there are even a couple notches to catch it with too. As for the race stuck to the spindle snout, I’d try splitting it first, and if that doesn’t work to sneak up on it by cutting with a cutoff wheel.
Welding a bead and allowing it to cool will for sure free the race from the drum . I always carefully grind the race on the spindle down until it’s blue in the area. I could have heavy socks with a hammer and chisel it will crack in the blue area , and slip right off . PPE is a must when doing this kinda repair . Eyes are not available at the speed shop yet .
I greatly look forward to your explanation of how alcohol, acetone, gasoline, diesel or the volatile stuff in brake cleaner "doesn't evaporate". They don't "require" it. It's a nicety for reduced NVH. Applications where that doesn't matter typically spec some tiny amount of play. Like "torque to X and then back off Y degrees".
Just a lowly member of the “spit and whittle club”. I clean every bearing, inspect and repack, I also have never had a failure, but I’m just a two bit hack who is hell bent on teaching people the wrong way to do everything. Of course I’ve never proclaimed myself to be the resident internet expert either…. Also if one looks at service information for most tapered bearing packed in grease, generally they have a slight amount of endplay. GM for years said 0.001-0.005”.
I must have been tightening up bearings the incorrect way for years . Taper Rollers no clearance very slight preload , ball bearings very slight clearance no preloading .
Depends on application but as a general rule bearings that run in grease have a slight endplay and bearings that run in oil have preload
I might have been doing it wrong for the last 50 years, but I always snug the nut with a wrench while spinning the wheel then back it off to the first cotter pin location. That’s the way I was taught.
I've had this happen decades ago the exact same way. The cut you made is too wide now to split the race. Need a narrower slot so when you put a chisel into the slot it will crack the race by expanding it. Take a cutoff wheel and make another slot at around 45 degrees from the first one, then stop just before getting to the spindle. Insert a chisel and smack the heck out of it, and the race will split. They're really hard metal and easily will split once the slot is deep enough. There may be areas where some metal sticks to the spindle, and they can be carefully ground away to save the spindle. If you accidentally touch the spindle a little it wont ruin it and you can still put new bearings on it fine.
At least 2 guys have given the best answer here to remove the outer race stuck in the drum (I haven't read the whole thread yet). As far as packing the new bearings:
Class 8 Trucks changed from 40yr ago. Oil type, we torqued to 50ft lbs rolling to set, backed off till we bumped clearance. Never lost a wheel bearing or seal (unless driver smoked brakes down mountain) with 100 tractors, 120 trailers, 3.5yr. Later I was in different career, (Diesel Eng Focus) my truck buddies say the wheel bearings are torqued, preloaded design as you mentioned.
Most full floating hub bearings are set at zero preload or slight endplay. General speaking again, if the component has to be precision located then there is a bunch of preload, think differential bearings
Another tip you might use is to install the wheel and tire with a couple of lug nuts before you preload the bearing. Then spin the tire by hand as you tighten the bearing. The heavier mass of the drum/wheel/tire combo makes it easier to feel the load as the bearing tightens. Snug (yeah I know) then back off to the closest cotter pin slot in the nut. YRMV
Most service manuals will have a procedure and spec for your wheel bearings. For instance I’m in the process of redoing the brakes on the Dart. The service manual say to tighten the bearing nut to 90 in lbs while rotating the drum then back off to next slot for cotter pin. The procedure should produce 0 to 0.003 end play. It also states to coat not fill the dust cap. This is more or less how Dad taught me years ago, didn’t use a torque wrench just snugged up with a 12” Cresent Dan
That process sounds familiar. It seems to me that there used to be two slightly different procedures for installing new bearings and cleaning, inspecting, repacking and reinstalling used bearings. But I don't recall the exact details. Of course with used bearings you wanted to make sure to install them only in their original races.
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