Nigel Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 (edited) If an admin reads this, please move this to the Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis forum. I accidentally posted this in the Drivetrain forum. Thanks! I replaced the rear wheel bearing in my 240 a number of years ago. I was recently doing a routine inspection of the rear brakes, and when I pulled the driver's side drum off, I discovered grease inside the drum. This happened to me a few years back on the passenger side too. I replaced the outer bearing on the passenger side at that time, but I don't recall what the condition of the seal was. I think it may have popped out. I took the driver's side stub axle out this past weekend to replace the bearing, and there was lots of grease built up between the bearing and the stub axle wheel flange. I was expecting to find that the seal had popped out, but when I cleaned out the grease, there was no noticeable damage to the seal. Since the brake shoes are now contaminated, I decided this would be a good time to do a disk conversion, and I pulled the passenger side axle too to get the drum backing plates off. The passenger side axle was also starting to show a build up of grease on the outside of outer bearing. But after I cleaned out the grease, I could see that the seal still looked good on that bearing too. And like I said, I had just replaced that bearing a few years ago. So, I'm thinking that I packed too much grease into hub, and when everything gets hot and expands, the grease is getting forced out past the seals. The picture in the factory service manual is not very clear. It seems to indicate that grease should be applied all around the hub so that it's almost even with the inner bearing race. In other words, the balls in the bearing would be continually bathed in grease from the hub. That's pretty much what I did. But I'm now assuming that's wrong, so, the question is, how much grease should be put in there? Nigel '73 240ZT Edited May 27, 2010 by Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 If an admin reads this, please move this to the Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis forum. I accidentally posted this in the Drivetrain forum. Thanks! So, I'm thinking that I packed too much grease into hub, and when everything gets hot and expands, the grease is getting forced out past the seals. The picture in the factory service manual is not very clear. It seems to indicate that grease should be applied all around the hub so that it's almost even with the inner bearing race. In other words, the balls in the bearing would be continually bathed in grease from the hub. That's pretty much what I did. But I'm now assuming that's wrong, so, the question is, how much grease should be put in there? Nigel '73 240ZT The pictures I have in the 1972 FSM show, in figure RA-25, that grease needs to be packed into the bearings and inside the "distance piece" that goes around the shaft and between the bearing inner races. There's no need to pack grease into the housing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted May 27, 2010 Author Share Posted May 27, 2010 The pictures I have in the 1972 FSM show, in figure RA-25, that grease needs to be packed into the bearings and inside the "distance piece" that goes around the shaft and between the bearing inner races. There's no need to pack grease into the housing. The copy of the manual I have doesn't show the hatch marks which indicate the grease application very clearly in that drawing. I didn't really notice them at all until now, and I can just barely make them out. Consequently, I guess I assumed that the rear axle drawing was meant to be interpreted in the same way as the front axle drawing (FA-20), which is much clearer, and I misinterpreted the line that is being pointed to in RA-25 to mean that the hub should be filled to that point, as opposed to grease being added to the distance piece. Now I know. Well, at least it gave me an excuse to do a rear disk upgrade. Thanks! Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junglist Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 I just liberally put grease in there, figured it can't hurt to have a little extra. With Redline CV/wheel bearing grease and brand new NOS Nissan rear bearings...the hubs feel incredibly smooth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted May 27, 2010 Author Share Posted May 27, 2010 I just liberally put grease in there, figured it can't hurt to have a little extra. With Redline CV/wheel bearing grease and brand new NOS Nissan rear bearings...the hubs feel incredibly smooth. A little extra is probably no big deal, but if you trowel it in there like I did, it apparently forces it's way right back out again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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