New Wheel Bearings could use more grease.

[JonJay]

At 90 hours, I am picking away at my regular maintenance items to reduce the time I am actually down for my up coming Conditional Inspection. I did not grease my wheel bearings before the first flight.
Although they where "pregreased", they where not greased very well. I would recommend that you pack them before you take that first flight.
I would not have wanted to go too many more hours on them. Perhaps this has been noted before, but it passed me by.

[Geico266]

Good thread.

I just got done going through the brakes on a 10. I noticed the holes for the cotter key were not deburred causing metal shavings to form when the aluminum cap slid across the burrs. Sooo, it was a good time to pull everything apart, inspect the brake pads, pins, backing plate, bearings for grease, and look for any abnormalities.
The caliper bolts were a tad loose so I pulled them out and used Loctite & torqued.

After 150 hours, a little more than 1/2 of the pad life left. Not bad wear, IMHO, but after reading another thread about the 10's pads being hard to come by I ordered a set just in case. I hate waiting for UPS.

[TSwezey]

Originally Posted by JonJay

At 90 hours, I am picking away at my regular maintenance items to reduce the time I am actually down for my up coming Conditional Inspection. I did not grease my wheel bearings before the first flight.
Although they where "pregreased", they where not greased very well. I would recommend that you pack them before you take that first flight.
I would not have wanted to go too many more hours on them. Perhaps this has been noted before, but it passed me by.

It is funny that you brought this up. I was just discussing things that we need to do before moving the plane to the airport. The wheels were greased when I got them but I didn't think they were greased well and we need to pack all the wheel bearings before we move the plane. Thanks for confirming it.

[mburch]

Someone once told me that the grease that comes with new bearings is just there to preserve them until you put the "real" grease in. Seemed believable to me, so I repacked my bearings before I ever installed my wheels.

mcb

[JonJay]

Originally Posted by mburch

Someone once told me that the grease that comes with new bearings is just there to preserve them until you put the "real" grease in. Seemed believable to me, so I repacked my bearings before I ever installed my wheels.

mcb

Makes sense. If they where packed in wax paper, like you normally see new bearings, it would be obvious to most people. However, they are supplied installed in the wheels. I think this makes them an easy thing to overlook.
My bearings defineatley had more grease than just a protective coating, as I have seen on packaged bearings, still, not very well packed.

[robertahegy]

The grease that is in the bearings, as shipped in the kit, is not adequate and should be cleaned out and the bearing properly repacked before assembling the wheels and brakes on the plane.

Roberta

[Noah]

Originally Posted by robertahegy

The grease that is in the bearings, as shipped in the kit, is not adequate and should be cleaned out and the bearing properly repacked before assembling the wheels and brakes on the plane.

Roberta

Here is my as-received bearing from Cleveland, installed on gear yesterday:


Roberta, how do you know it's not adequate? What IS adequate? Not all bearings should be packed 100% with grease - should these?

[JonJay]

Originally Posted by Noah

Here is my as-received bearing from Cleveland, installed on gear yesterday:


Roberta, how do you know it's not adequate? What IS adequate? Not all bearings should be packed 100% with grease - should these?

I would suspect mine looked about like that when new. I got 90 hours on mine with no adverse affects or signs of where, but there was not much grease left in them. I think Roberta's advise is sound.
However, I have never heard of any bearing failures and I would bet that I am not the first person to overlook this. One should reasonably clean and repack wheel bearings at least every 100 hours, depending on environment and usage, and/or at each conditional inspection. So, is it adequate, was for me, but.....
Might be an interesting question to throw out there, "has anyone ever had to replace their wheel bearings?"

[Gary Bricker]

Avery sells a bearing packer that is great to use and you will get the correct amount in the bearings. They should be packed from one end until the grease goes out the other end. This packer does this very easy. When the bearing is packed this way the grease is inside the cage where it needs to be.

[robertahegy]

Mine did not have nearly that much grease in them. Not knowing the type of grease, how old the grease was, or how adequately they were packed, I would recommend that they be cleaned and repacked with the correct grade of grease to ensure adequate coverage of the bearings. Seems like easy, cheap insurance to me. Your plane, though. Do what you think is best.

Roberta