Adding Grease to the Wheel Bearings

**B_and_D** · 10-10-2004, 10:17 PM

Yesterday I took the plunge and greased the wheel bearings after re-reading the posts about this. I was going to get my DH to do this, but last weekend he had to pull the toilet out of the master bathroom and replace it this week, and then a pine tree fell into our driveway yesterday, which he will have to cut up and remove. I figured my honey had enough "to do". After he went to work, I did too.

What a mess! First I couldn't get the grease gun head to thread straight onto the grease gun cylinder. When I finally got it to go on, I got the end of the grease gun tube fitted onto the wheel bearing fitting, and then it wouldn't come off. I had horrible images of us driving to an RV repair shop with the end of the grease gun duct-taped to the wheel...

I tried unscrewing it, and pulling on it, and it wouldn't budge. Finally figured out that if you just kind of moved it aside to an angle then you could pull it off (whew!).

There was grease everywhere, went through 1/2 a roll of paper towels, plus I cut my finger trying to wipe out the excess from inside where the seal goes, so there was blood mixed with grease on everything. I finally went inside and cleaned up and put on a bandaid, then put on latex gloves. That greatly improved my grip on the gun.

Although I kept twisting the end of the handle, and even "burped" the air space from the grease, you could only get so much grease into the fitting. And then when I thought the tube was empty, there was like 1/2 of a tube left, and it went everywhere.

It took 3 tubes of the mini cartridges from Wal Mart to make the old black grease come out.

But my finger is better today, and hopefully there is plenty of lubrication in the wheel bearings.

I figure next time we go out we should drive a mile or two and then see what the wheels look like...

10-10-2004, 11:13 PM

.........3,000 miles from now, you get to do this all over again.

Your escapade sounds precisely like me this past Wednesday. I experienced exactly the same thing ... except for the cut finger that is. In my case, it was skint knuckles... and a lacerated thumb.

Also jumped the 'gun' ... in a manner of speaking, and 'assumed' the tubes were empty. NOPE!!!! Damn thing 'burped' all over me when taking the cylinder off. So, out of 3 tubes, probably wasted about 1 full one.

But never mind ... got the black stuff to squirt out also.

Have decided to visit WWorld again, and next time, get the larger version of these contraptions. The little hand-gun type is for the byrds!!!!

Paul

That's not only newbie to TM ... but also to 'squirt grease guns'.

RockyMtnRay · 10-11-2004, 07:05 AM

I'm empathetic to both of you folks...went through this myself back in June. Took the better part of a large tube of grease for my two bearings...suspect my grease gun was not attaching firmly to the zirk.

I found that good ol' Q-Tips work pretty good for digging out the excess grease from the under wheel bearing cap...no cut fingers that way. And it is important to dig out the excess grease...as Bill Jeffries found out, if you leave the bearing cap full of grease it heats up, expands, and oozes out all over the wheel.

**Civil_War_Buff** · 10-11-2004, 08:16 AM

I greased mine just before my trip in August. I have the benefit of a pneumatic grease gun....what a pleasure using that!! I used almost a full 13oz. tube for both wheels as well. And I agree that you need a LOT of paper towels when doing this task...it's amazing how much grease is in there.

I always use nitrile gloves when doing anything on my vehicles anymore, so they do help, but I could feel that the inside lip on the hub was sharp, so I was very careful when cleaning that out.

Anyhow, great job D' !! I sure wish my wife would pick up my slack and do some of these things for me.... ;-0 (;-))

**Bill** · 10-11-2004, 09:36 AM

I'm about to do my EZ-Lubes again, as we prepare to leave Maine for Arizona. Having learned from the last couple times, and after discussion with MikeD about his Nev-R-Fails, I think that this time I am going to pop off the little sheet metal hub cover before I connect the grease gun. It's just a friction fit, and should come off fairly easily if I tunk it with a piece of wood. With the cover off, it will be a lot easier to see what I am doing, get the old grease off the hub, avoid cut fingers, and avoid grease splats all over the wheel as we travel. If anything goes wrong with this approach, I'll post - but I think it will be a big improvement.

Bill

**B_and_D** · 10-11-2004, 09:41 AM

Great idea about using the Q-tips. I think I'll go back out and clean more grease out.

Sounds like this is not a fun task for any of us! I'm just glad it's done.

**Civil_War_Buff** · 10-11-2004, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill

I'm about to do my EZ-Lubes again, as we prepare to leave Maine for Arizona. Having learned from the last couple times, and after discussion with MikeD about his Nev-R-Fails, I think that this time I am going to pop off the little sheet metal hub cover before I connect the grease gun. It's just a friction fit, and should come off fairly easily if I tunk it with a piece of wood. With the cover off, it will be a lot easier to see what I am doing, get the old grease off the hub, avoid cut fingers, and avoid grease splats all over the wheel as we travel. If anything goes wrong with this approach, I'll post - but I think it will be a big improvement.

Bill

Thanks Bill,

Knowing whether or not if the metal hub comes off easliy would be a big help when I grease the bearings next year. Please keep us "posted".

**B_and_D** · 10-11-2004, 10:32 PM

I used the Q Tips to remove a lot more grease (thanks for the tip, RMR) and also cleaned the wheels! Got this cleaner called "Awesome" at the $1 store, and it works great on the TM's exterior grime. The wheels haven't been this clean and white since the day we picked up our TM

. I'm still expecting to see some grease flung from the bearings, though...will let you know how much.

**B_and_D** · 10-21-2004, 06:27 PM

Even though I put more grease into the bathroom side bearings, look what happened after we drove a while...they're the ones on the clean wheel...keep in mind that I cleaned as much of the excess grease out as I could.

Had this thought: Since I put more new good grease into the bathroom side, it chased more of the old black grease out, so there was less bad old black grease to heat up and fling out around the wheels.

??

11-16-2004, 08:09 PM

I trailered my 3326 2000 miles on the first outing just bringing it home from Indiana to Arizona. I had it greased before pickup. Per the manual, it was due greasing when I got home. So 3 wheels took grease nicely but the 4th wouldn't seem to take grease, also evidenced by little surplus grease under the rubber cap. After a trip and then reading this post, I tried again tonight and was successful. I'm not sure why and am wondering if the bearing might stop the passage way depending on how it is located.

FYI, I use a full size grease gun with two flexible extensions from Checker. This allows putting the gun on the ground and pumping by pressing the handle down with one hand. The other hand holds the fitting onto the zerk. No fuss, no muss. This works best for greasing the steering of my truck... DW pumps, I hold the fitting on those miserably located zerks.

Since I was greasing the wheels tonight after dark, I used a headlamp with 4 LED diode lights. This is the greatest light source for all the camper things that happen after dark. It straps onto the head leaving the hands free for whatever you were out there to do. Got it at REI for $32. It has 3 AAA cells that last 2 or 3 years. I highly recommend it and keep mine in the pouch on the inside of the TM entry door.

This is a great web site. Makes the TM ownership a lot more fun! Thanks for all the great ideas.