/5 front wheel bearings

[20774]

I'd be mighty careful about using brake cleaner on bearings. The brake cleaner can do a fine job of removing all of the grease and oil from the surface.

I checked Oak's article. He mentions "solvent" then goes on to specifically say "charcoal starter" fluid as well as chlorinated hydrocarbon cleaner such as 111-Trichloro or Perchlorethane.

I've always been using the product Brakleen....the can says non-chlorinated and contains methanol, acetone, toluene, heptane, and carbon dioxide. Might not be the right stuff per Oak...I've used it often to clean things and then put back in service...always wear gloves.

I usually go straight for this stuff...maybe I'll have to look around. Oak does mention to use the solvent and then flush the area. Seems like that would help alleviate any issues that you suggest. Doubt I'd be trying eat a sammich in the middle of all this!

 

[30064]

This is what I've used with great success for packing the captured bearing in the all aluminum drum snowflake. A little time consuming working in-between each roller but in the end, I'm assured the bearing is well packed with grease. And the hub is not full of unused grease. I'm not knocking the grease tool you guys are mentioning or those selling it. I choose not to use it, but prefer the syringe or grease needle.

 

[SCBuckeye]

I did that recently on the front bearings on my /7...not so easy to do on the rears.

RE: the tool to grease the bearings in place...I bought one from Cycleworks but am not convinced that it really gets the grease where it needs to go. I've asked Cycleworks to explain the flow path of the grease but have yet to hear. On the Airheads email list, there was a discussion about a year ago and one of the prolific explainers on the forum even went so far as to draw a diagram about how the grease just fills the internal void and doesn't really help the bearings. I'd sure like be able to better visualize how it works. It would cool to see something like that at Airhead SuperTech that happens each February.

One of my winter projects was to make my own greasing tool to grease both my front and rear wheels using a grease gun with bearing grade tube of grease.

The grease path that I created was to do this: I took out the bearings, and drilled a small hole (several) on the spacer that goes between the bearing races. Then upon re-assembly, I put in the bearing races and used a 5/8" bolt through the bearings (like the axle, but slightly smaller diameter) which when tightened with some gasket washers against outside bearing spacers, and a nut, it can then be "forced" greased. Earlier, I had purchased the bolt for about $1.50 and a small 1/4-20 threaded grease zerk. Then I drilled a small hole into the bolt end (head end) down about 2" deep. The I drilled a hole in the side of the bolt into the other hole so grease could flow in and out to the outside of the bolt stem. I then threaded the hole on the head to fit the 1/4-20 zerk.

Now, I can grease the bearings without having to take apart the whole bearing mass. I checked the grease flow, and it did work: first the grease is forced into the zerk, through the horizontal hole and then into the 90 deg. hole and out into the "spacer" chamber. Then when that chamber fills up, grease is forced through the hole in the bearing spacer and then out toward both bearings. Without the seals in, I actually saw the grease forcing its way into each of the roller cavities on both bearings. Then I put in new seals and tried again.

The only "down" side I encountered was there was enough force exerted by the grease coming out, that the newly installed seals (which were somewhat greasy when I installed them) would actually start to get pushed out. I just had to hold them in place to get the grease to force its way out through the seal where the seal meets the external spacer collars.

 

[Omega Man]

I am a fan of Kerosene as a parts cleaner- I run it in the parts washer.
OM

 

[20774]

Jimmy -

I think can see what you're describing...it sounds like the tool that's been developed by Cycleworks. As I said, there was a discussion on the Airheads mailing list, and Joe 'Cuda created the following diagram. His contention is that the grease just comes up through the hole in the tool, and rather than flow out through the bearing rollers (the large green rectangles in the picture), it takes the path of least resistance and flows towards the center hub. If it does that, it's probably going to take old grease with dirt bits in it and push it along towards the other side. The grease will go to the easiest path. As I said, this would be really neat to see in a cutaway or something to really understand what is happening.

Joe is suggesting that most have Option A with no really divider in the middle; it might work better as Option B, forcing the grease back towards the bearing, but again, bringing dirt with it.