Bearing Pack

We pulled the tent trailer over to neighbor Steve’s place yesterday to pull the drums off and take a look at the conditions of the wheel bearings and pack them with fresh grease if needed.<br />n<br />nSteve gets busy on the weekends, so I actually had to wait a while before pulling my rig into his driveway. But when we did, the trailer went up, jackstands went under, and the wheels and drums came off quickly.<br />n<br />nMy hesitation about doing this myself had to do with removing the castle nut that holds the drum on. Not really sure how torqued it is. Then removing the inner bearing usually means having to press it out, or pressing the grease seal out. So I wanted a bit of guidance to see how it is done for next time. Turns out that the main castle nut is not really torqued at all. Just a good sized set of channel locks is all that’s needed.<br />n<br />nThe bearings were in good shape, but they were geting a bit dry, so it was a good thing we did this. Steve pressed out the grease seal but the small spring got damaged. On both sides. So I took the seal over to Kragens to get a new one.<br />n<br />nIt was getting late in the afternoon on a Sunday to start a parts trek like this, so I was nervous. Once I got to the parts store, the guys behind the counter had to hunt around, opening all the boxes of seals since a) there was no number printed on the seal to match against, and b) I was working on a trailer, not a car, which is not what they are used to,<br />n<br />nAfter some hunting around, they finally came up with two different seals that were close in diameter, both inside and outside diameter. The only major difference was that the thickness of the seal was greater. But most of the extra thickness was in the form of a rubber sheild that surrounded one side of the seal, so it was a bit compressable. I took two, one for each side, and raced back to Steve’s. He examined them and declared that we could use them as-is, in their entirety, rather than just stealing the springs from them.<br />n<br />nOh, BTW, the box those seals came in said something about a Japanese application, Mazda. But hey, they fit.<br />n<br />nSteve also noticed a broken clip that retains the electromagnet for the brakes. He dug around his small parts bin and found a bicycle skewer spring to replace the small spring that was damaged, and he tweaked the clip so it held again.<br />n<br />nIt was fun playing around with this stuff, and I feel better we were able to get some grease on those bearings. if I am able tomorrow, I will start work on the charge line from the tow vehicle to the trailer battery. Wiring is always a lot of fun.