Rear bearing grease tool

[William S.]

I will soon begin rebuilding the rear end of my car. I will be checking the rear bearings for end play and listening for unusual sounds, if all sounds and looks good I would like to get by with greasing the bearings using a grease tool and not tearing the bearings out of the spindles. Does any one have any experience with one of these tools and does it get grease to the outer as well as the inner bearing.

thanks,

Bill (50564)

[Jim D.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

Use a hand grease gun. NOT a Pneumatic! and only pump it no more than 3 times , first one being dry. Any more and you run the risk of popping the seals. Always check end play . If the wheel assy, shakes you need a rebuild.

[Michael W.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

By design, the tool will only grease the inner bearing and not the outer.

If you are not sure how many miles the present bearings have on them, it would be money well spent to properly disassemble, inspect and replace as required. It's not funny being passed on the highway by your own rear wheel.

[Jim T.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

Doing it right the first time will give you many miles of driving. Since you are rebuilding your rear end you will have time to remove both rear trailing arms and send them to www.bairs.com for a rebuild. Bairs rebuilds rear ends also.

[Gerard F.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

By design, the tool will only grease the inner bearing and not the outer.

If you are not sure how many miles the present bearings have on them, it would be money well spent to properly disassemble, inspect and replace as required. It's not funny being passed on the highway by your own rear wheel.

Bill,

Mike is right, you don't want to overlook the rear bearings. Check to see if there is any play in the spindles up or down or side to side. If there is any looseness, you are wasting your time with the greasing tool.

You don't want to wind up like this:




Or have the housing look like this after the spindle broke:

[Gary R.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

The tool is junk. I rebuild these and have been sent arms that were greased with this tool and supports that were tapped with a zerk fitting. I don't like or use either. The problem with both is you don't know how much grease is moving around. Pump too much and you'll blow out a seal.

If you have original bearings in there or an old job you're better off rebuilding them now.

There are many places that do this work, some good, some very bad. I would read my thread on the job before you decide what you are going to do. The way I do them is to machine fit all the mating parts,but I have access to a full toolroom and have been around machine tools for 35 years.

You want 0015-002 endplay and under 005 rotor runout.
Good luck

[Paul J.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

Bill,

Mike is right, you don't want to overlook the rear bearings. Check to see if there is any play in the spindles up or down or side to side. If there is any looseness, you are wasting your time with the greasing tool.

You don't want to wind up like this:




Or have the housing look like this after the spindle broke:

Ouch, ouch, ouch. I lost a bearing 32 years ago and got lucky. I had heard it so I was slowly driving it to my friend's garage. 300 feet from his driveway it failed but the wheel stayed on and I limped in. When he finally got it apart pieces went everywhere.

I now know how much damage I could have done. I'll never do that again.

[Joe L.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

I will soon begin rebuilding the rear end of my car. I will be checking the rear bearings for end play and listening for unusual sounds, if all sounds and looks good I would like to get by with greasing the bearings using a grease tool and not tearing the bearings out of the spindles. Does any one have any experience with one of these tools and does it get grease to the outer as well as the inner bearing.

thanks,

Bill (50564)

Bill-----


Keep this in mind: there are TWO basic steps to servicing ANY serviceable wheel bearing assembly. The FIRST step is to thoroughly clean the bearings of old grease and contaminants. The SECOND step is to PROPERLY repack the bearings with fresh grease. Using the bearing greasing tool you mention accomplishes only one of these steps for the inner bearing and NONE of the steps for the outer bearing. So, I say, forget it.

Second point: unknown to many folks, but not all greases are compatible. This is a non-issue if you follow the above servicing procedure since all old grease is removed. However, if you use the greasing tool, how do you know that the grease that you're pumping in is compatible with the grease that's already in there?

Another point: grease is a combination of a soap + an oil, especially the older greases that were used 30+ years ago. What you have in your bearings after such a long time is mostly just the soap; the oil is mostly gone. So, if you pump in fresh grease, you are adding fresh grease to an old soap + the contaminants that have developed over the years of use.

[William S.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

All,

I am convinced that a rebuild is the way to go. THANKS everyone.

I am thinking of using Vansteel. Does anyone have an opinion?

[Jim D.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

Bill,

Mike is right, you don't want to overlook the rear bearings. Check to see if there is any play in the spindles up or down or side to side. If there is any looseness, you are wasting your time with the greasing tool.

You don't want to wind up like this:




Or have the housing look like this after the spindle broke:

Thats the way they look after a repair with a bad bearing that has been burnt out !

[Joe L.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

All,

I am convinced that a rebuild is the way to go. THANKS everyone.

I am thinking of using Vansteel. Does anyone have an opinion?

William----


Van Steel is an excellent choice.

[Gerard F.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

All,

I am convinced that a rebuild is the way to go. THANKS everyone.

I am thinking of using Vansteel. Does anyone have an opinion?

Bill,

One bonus of sending out the trailing arms, or just the rear wheel assemblies for refurb, is that you won't have to screw around with getting the parking brake to work again, I think most of the outfits also refurb or replace the parking brake assembly, especially if you go with an outfit that rivets on the rotors. I would recommended you go with the riveted on rotors.

Here's mine:

[Gary V.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

I will soon begin rebuilding the rear end of my car. I will be checking the rear bearings for end play and listening for unusual sounds, if all sounds and looks good I would like to get by with greasing the bearings using a grease tool and not tearing the bearings out of the spindles. Does any one have any experience with one of these tools and does it get grease to the outer as well as the inner bearing.

thanks,

Bill (50564)

we at www.Vtechcorvette.com rebuild hundreds of trailing arms. I think I threw the rear bearing grease tool over twenty years ago.

[Roger O.]

Re: Rear bearing grease tool

All,

I am convinced that a rebuild is the way to go. THANKS everyone.

I am thinking of using Vansteel. Does anyone have an opinion?

The tool is junk. I rebuild these and have been sent arms that were greased with this tool and supports that were tapped with a zerk fitting. I don't like or use either. The problem with both is you don't know how much grease is moving around. Pump too much and you'll blow out a seal.

If you have original bearings in there or an old job you're better off rebuilding them now.

There are many places that do this work, some good, some very bad. I would read my thread on the job before you decide what you are going to do. The way I do them is to machine fit all the mating parts,but I have access to a full toolroom and have been around machine tools for 35 years.

You want 0015-002 endplay and under 005 rotor runout.
Good luck

Read Garys thread on rebuilding the rear bearings and you will see he does excellent work.