Late Model Wheel Bearing Maintenance

[gbullman]

I did some searching but didn’t find any guidance on what I’m looking for.

According to the maintenance records I got with the car all wheel bears were serviced or replaced a couple thousand miles before I bought the car in late 2020 (front serviced, rears replaced in 2013). I am putting more miles on the car than I expected to, which is a good thing that I’m having so much fun.

Best I can tell from the Shop Manual there is no regular maintenance for the rear wheel bearings, just replace when there is an issue and fronts should be serviced / repacked when you do front brakes (expecting that will be 25-35K miles).

So should I be doing anything beyond what I’m getting from the shop manual? In season car gets driven regularly, mostly back roads, some highway. In the winter I try to get it out for 30 to 60 minutes when there is no salt on the roads (not often the last couple of years).

Not looking for trouble, just trying to do what makes sense.

Thanks in advance.

[Frank DuVal]

That's it, drive it. The rear wheel bearing assemblies on lates are "lubricated for life". Of course that means the life of the bearings after the lubricant stops being a lubricant...

[Lane66Monza]

Red wheel grease doesn't last forever. On the shelf, the grease life is 5 years. If it has been 10 years since the wheel bearings were serviced with new grease, I would say it is time again. Mileage varies depending on speed usage. Typical around town and under 55, 50K would not be unusual life. High speed over 55 for all driving, 30k might be prudent. Driving in water where axles get submerged, inspect for water coming out of seals. Overheated the brakes one too many times, time to repack.

Now, if you don't know and it can't be proved when the last whewel bearing greasing was done, do all for sets of wheel bearings to protect your investment.

These are just some general guidelines, I learned from my dad many years ago,

Yes, I overheated my More Door's brakes doing the Tail of the Dragon drive in late 2022. My wife Donna got it back home (375 miles) 3 days later with no issues. When I got all 4 wheel bearings accessed, red grease was black and partially liquified. So, I say, one brake overheat, change the wheel bearing grease, especially if you have smoke coming from your wheels.

[Frank DuVal]

I agree overheated grease is not a good lubricant. Bearing failure is coming. Since the only way to repack late model rear bearings is to disassemble the hubs , and the average Corvair owner cannot do that, drive on and don't worry until there is noise. Then send them out for rebuilding. No Corvair shop is going to open the hubs without installing new bearings anyway. The factory hubs lasted well over 100K typically (without overheating the lube of course!). Not sure currently available bearings will duplicate past performance...

[joelsplace]

Modern cars often have ball bearings which can't be lubed and they often last 150k or more Corvairs have vastly superior tapered roller bearings. In my experience they last a very long time. 99% of issues are from 60 year old grease that has dried up. I've run a lot of EM bearings a lot of mile on the original grease with very few issues. I really should grease those...

[Lane66Monza]

As long as the existing wheel bearings and races can be reused in the existing hub installation, the shimming process can be avoided. Diassembly, cleaning, bearing regreasing, and reassembly is all that is required.

The difficulties come when the decision is made to install new bearings and races. Then the shimming process has to be accomplished with the special tooling.

[gbullman]

Thanks all, another thing not to worry about at least for a few more years.

When I bought this car I figured I would do 1500 to 2500 miles a year like my previous classics but I’m doing more like 4K each year which is what got me thinking.

No noises, everything spins fine with the wheels raised so for now I’m not going to worry about them.

[davemotohead]

The best deal out there for the rears is Steve Goodman at Rear Engine Specialists in Colorado. When the time comes you can ship him your assemblies and get them back ready to install. I rebuild my own myself and used to do them for others but stopped offering that service because the labor involved is not worth the profit margin to me. Steve's workmanship and price just can't be beat anywhere.

[Frank DuVal]

Al, you make a very good point. If one knows they overheated their rear brakes and notice grease running out of the seals of the rear hubs while replacing the brakes it would be a good idea to take the hubs apart for cleaning, inspecting and repacking of the still good bearings. If the bearings were found to be bad at that time then the assemblies can still be shipped off for new bearing installs.

[Lane66Monza]

Frank:

My overheated rear hubs are now sitting in my storage shed. I plan to rebuild them someday. At that point, I will take photos of the disassembled parts with its lube. I will post status of the bearings and races, also. Please note that we had no unusual noise coming emanating from the rear hubs from the time of overheat to time of removal. About 800 miles were driven in between. The front hubs removed for the disc brake mod were found to have black grease. This forced the removal of the rear hubs. The rear hubs showed leakage of black grease from seals when removed. All my hubs are built with red high temp grease designed for disc brake hubs.

[TheRealHip]

As long as the existing wheel bearings and races can be reused in the existing hub installation, the shimming process can be avoided. Diassembly, cleaning, bearing regreasing, and reassembly is all that is required.

The difficulties come when the decision is made to install new bearings and races. Then the shimming process has to be accomplished with the special tooling.

Well that's good to know. I think I'll just buy some new seals, clean everything up and re-grease them then.

[davemotohead]

As long as the existing wheel bearings and races can be reused in the existing hub installation, the shimming process can be avoided. Diassembly, cleaning, bearing regreasing, and reassembly is all that is required.

The difficulties come when the decision is made to install new bearings and races. Then the shimming process has to be accomplished with the special tooling.

Well that's good to know. I think I'll just buy some new seals, clean everything up and re-grease them then.

You will still need a press and some special tools to get the assembly apart to re grease the bearings, also once apart you need to inspect the races and each roller in the bearing, after you remove all the grease and clean them completely you need to inspect every roller for pits around its entire surface, its is time consuming but one pitted roller can cause problems to both the roller and race that can affect the rest of the rollers, once pits get started they will get worse no matter what you do and it will eventually fail and you will be rebuilding it again, also clean them good, you don't want to mix greases as they might not be compatible.

[TheRealHip]

My car has been sitting for 25 years. I am going thru everything. Hubs were ok when I stuck it in my garage. Should be ok still. I think I have everything I need.
Oh and thank you Dave I watch yer videos.

[Lane66Monza]

If you are saying the rear hub assemblies have grease still in them from 25 or maybe more years ago, are you waiting for a noise to occur before you look at them. How many miles and years has itbeen since the hubs were rebuilt/regreased? Units not operating are at mercy of condensation from temperature changes. I would think that if you want to protect your investment, you would get those hubs tore down, inspected and work done on them prior to a failure.

[joelsplace]

Al,
I think you missed where he said "Well that's good to know. I think I'll just buy some new seals, clean everything up and re-grease them then."

[Lane66Monza]

I may have, but his last post gave impression that all is fine with 25 year old and older will be good as is.