How to Change Beariing Buddies?

[STL Crappie Nightmare]

I have an older boat with an older trailer and I took a trip to Truman a few weeks ago from my home in Kansas City and I had grease all over the wheels and the bearing buddy was half full. I was told the seal is bad and they need to be replaced. Does anyone have experience on changing bearing buddies?

Thanks

[jackb]

Chris, go to the main forum page and scroll down to the "mechanics corner" click on that, go to page 2 the second post is trailer maintenance. Second post tells you how to replace wheel bearings complete with pictures. (And yes you owe me for doing the research. JUST KIDDING!!!) Good luck.

[bwillaub]

Bearing Buddies should be knocked off with a rubber hammer or dead blow hammer if I'm not mistaken. I believe they are just an "interference fit".

[Hogster1]

Bearing Buddies should be knocked off with a rubber hammer or dead blow hammer if I'm not mistaken. I believe they are just an "interference fit".

You would be correct bwillaub. But if it is slinging the grease from the seal its the wheel seal behind the hub.Knock off the bearing buddy and remove the axle nut and front bearing slide the hub off the shaft and the seal is on the backside of the hub.Just pry it out of the hub and tap a new one in place. Hope this helps ya

[STL Crappie Nightmare]

You would be correct bwillaub. But if it is slinging the grease from the seal its the wheel seal behind the hub.Knock off the bearing buddy and remove the axle nut and front bearing slide the hub off the shaft and the seal is on the backside of the hub.Just pry it out of the hub and tap a new one in place. Hope this helps ya

Does it make a difference if all the grease is on the front of the wheel and none one the back?

[jimp]

you would be better off to spend the few $$ and put all new seals and bearings in, new buddy bearings as well wouldn't hurt if you plan on taking long trips on a regular basis.

[keeferfish]

+1 on the new seals comming from a guy who lost an axle and watched his tire and wheel pass the truck!

[gabowman]

If no grease is on the back of the wheels then those seals are OK. But...If youre gonna replace the buddy bearings, then I'd suggest at the least...wash the bearings out good with cleaning fluid (gas will do) and repack 'em. Clean the inside of the hub up and go ahead and replace the seals since theyre cheap and you have everything tore apart.

[badaxed]

Check out amsoils non washout /high temperature wheel bearing grease. Put this in your wheels and you will never have bearing problems again. I have used this in my boat trailors for 25 years. Once i had an old white mercury outboard that had a bad lower unit seal. I could not find a seal for that old motor so i installed a grease sert and pumped in the amsoil grease. Here was a motor with no seal and i never had a drop of water in the lower unit.I ran that moter for years like that. Here is How i found out about the heat dissapation of Amsoil grease: The Amsoil dealer came into our shop and noticed we had an old barrel stove running. He asked if we used good grease. We told him we used the best grease we could buy. He asked if he could get a little sample of the grease we used. We gave him the grease gun. He applied a small amount of our grease and his amsoil grease on the hot barrel stove at the same time. Our regular grease melted and burned off to powder in just a few minutes. The amsoil grease just sat there and sat there and sat threre. We had to wipe it off after the stove cooled down. It was the same as when it came out of the tube. Before I used amsoil grease I had lots of bearing failures in my boat trailors from the many fishing trips i took where i put hot bearings in cool water (lakes & Rivers). Now i feel the bearings (Amsoil grease)and they are as cool as before I started my trips. no more overheating no more washouts.

[kazualobzerver]

Chris, you might google "trailer wheel bearing replacement" and you can get several sites showing illustrations, how to, etc.