Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Gallagher on August 9, 2018 at 6:11am

Jonathan,

There are several YouTube videos that cover packing of a wheel bearing.  Here is just one I found out there:  https://youtu.be/BhL1uAp_WCw

I just used a small tub wheel bearing grease from the local auto parts store.  In the 10 years since I have been flying, I have cleaned and re-packed my bearings 3 or so times and have not seen any issues with them.

Good luck,

Dave

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Permalink Reply by Robert Riat on August 9, 2018 at 7:26am

I have been packing wheel bearings, for many years, on heavy equipment, by using a needle point on a

 grease gun.  They are inexpensive at a car parts store and puts the grease inside the rollers where it

counts and not much mess.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Riat on August 9, 2018 at 8:09am

My message maybe didn’t make sense. Wheel bearing grease in a tub works fine, but if you
own a grease gun you can use a good grade of gun grease, put the bearing together(even install
it on the axle) and pump enough grease between each roller inserting the needle point until
grease comes out each end of the rollers. I use Mobil xhp222 grease, but any heavy duty gun grease
will do the job. There isn’t much mess and you know the grease is in the proper place.
When an axle has a wheel bearing cap and people fill the cap with grease they are wasting
the grease and their time because that grease will seldom get into the bearing where it’s
needed. Just my experience and one way to do it....

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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Young on August 9, 2018 at 6:15pm

The bearings that came with my Matco wheels in the 750 kit were sealed bearings. Did you get some bearings that require packing from the Zenith kit?

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Fay on August 9, 2018 at 6:28pm

Mine have a seal as well, but they don’t come pre greased.

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Permalink Reply by Jim and Amelia Isaacs on August 9, 2018 at 6:56pm

I’m confused, I thought sealed bearings require no grease.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Riat on August 9, 2018 at 7:15pm

The bearings that came with my Matco wheels on my 2017 750 kit are just standard Timkin style

tapered roller wheel bearings which required packing and also came with the seal located

directly under the adjustment nut.  Most sealed bearings are ball bearings. I think newer vehicles

are using ball bearings for wheel bearings, but most everything older used tapered wheel bearings

which always required packing.  Side load and a couple other factors play onto the type of bearing

used.  Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on August 10, 2018 at 1:20pm

Just FWIW, my 750 STOL kit #7688 (purchased in sub-kits between '09 and '10) came with sealed bearings in the Matco wheels.  After about 500+ hrs/6 years, I  began to notice some bearing noise when pulling the plane out of the hangar.  I replaced them with Matco-supplied sealed bearings that were reasonably priced.  They'll sell either the bearings alone or wheel hubs with the bearings pre-installed.  Since I had a hydraulic ram press, it was very simple to push out the old bearings and install the new ones myself.

John

N750A

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