Wheel Bearings

Now I'm curious how wheelbearings can be 'overgreased'.
I always pack them by hand until I can no longer fit any more grease into the race between the bearing balls. I also smear a light coat of grease all over the inside of the hub and the axle stub. Further, a coating on the seal before installing it.
Am I doing it right?
Klaus

OK, I meant 'rollers' not balls since these are roller bearings.

I'm intrigued!
How does overgreasing causing overheating?

When packing bearings if there is too much grease and the excess cannot get out they will overheat. Ask Timken

What causes the heat build-up from excess grease is the balls/rollers cannot rotate freely and therefore skid causing friction = heat, then due to the small clearance in the bearings as the balls/rollers and races heat and expand it makes the clearance even smaller the end result is metal to metal contact and goodby bearings. I have seen bearings fail after 5 minutes of service
We are very particular with packing bearings 1/3 full of grease max.
Check how much grease is in the bearings when you take them out -my guess 3 to 5 % of the free space and would have been like for the lase 50,000 klms you do not need a lot of grease in the bearing itself .
Regards Kev

V8 Troopie you are doing it spot on mate. What causes the overheating is not how much grease you put in the actual bearings themselves but filling the airspace between the bearings choc-a-block with grease so that when it all warms up the grease expands and having nowhere to go the grease churning around on iteself causes friction and in turn heat build up. What usually happens then is that it expands so much that it pushes the now fairly liquid grease past the seals and it then proceeds to cover the brake rotors or brake drums as the case may be. If it were critical not to fill the bearing cones with grease then the bearing manufacturers would not market bearing filling tools that save doing the job by hand and actually do fill the bearing. Also what about bearings that run in oil, they are filled. The correct way to hand pack a tapered roller bearing is to push the grease with the heel of your palm into the bearing cone from the curved side of the roller cage until it comes out between the rollers on the opposite side and continue this unti the full 360 degrees is full. Common sense will tell you that on the first rotation of the bearing the roller path will push the grease where it wants it end of story. The only exception to filling the chamber is on boat trailers where the bearings are regularly submerged in salt water and then only if the trailer is to be towed short distances so insufficient heat is built up to cause a problem. The theory being if the hub is full of grease then water cant get in.

Doug?, what is it with truckies and axes?. My neighbour spent half last weekend repairing a spring hanger on a ford louisville. His main weapons were a crow bar & blunt end of a axe!!. Ha HA. Agree, timken are good been there since dot one. Get what you pay for.!

Cheers.

Axle
what better tool than an axe for a Ford Louisville

HA HA HA HA HA, You said it not me!.

Davros_who, looked for the crack pressure on the tub of HTB grease and couldn't find anything but the gregory's manual specified a torque of 59lb then spin the wheels a bit then back off and re-torque to 25lb.

Cheers

Al

G'day Al
You still Brissie based? If so go to Sunshine State 4WD at Archerfield and get their kits - contain all you need. Usually you'll need to replace the seals because taking the bearing out can often damage them. Should replace them occassionally anyway - they keep all the good stuff in and the bad out. Also the purple grease SS have is excellent. Have been using it for years and never had a problem. Never heard about the over greasing issue. Have always packed them full. Any excess must be able to dissipate in a Toyota. Are you doing all the bearings, including the little ones in the swivel hub? If so allow plenty of time - it's a time consuming job.
Say g'day to your parents. How are they going?
Cheers from the Moose.

Gday Moose, haven't see you around here for a while. Sorted the bearings out over the weekend, also did a mate's as well. Mum and Dad are fine they've just got back from a trip up to Rocky and stopped off for a few days fishing at Inskip on the way back.