Packing bearings with grease by hand

Once you have the grease packed into the bearing you’ll want to lock the inside ring from turning and begin to turn the outside bearing so you are pushing that grease all over those needles. Once you have the bearing completely packed and the grease is poking out of the top, then you can take your grease and rub it all over to get residual grease for your trailer hub and give you proper bearing lubrication.

One common question we get a lot is when we tell clients they need to pack their trailer bearings properly. So, how does someone properly pack a trailer bearing?

More than just noisy or bothersome, bad wheel bearings could also lead to real performance issues like inconsistent braking, spongy steering and handling, uneven tire wear and, in extreme cases, the wheels could fall off. No matter how much (or how little) you know about cars, you don’t want the wheels falling off, right?

BearingPacker

In theory, wheel bearings could last as long as your Honda. Unlike oil changes or tire rotations, there’s no standard maintenance schedule for replacing them. However, wheel bearings can be damaged if you hit a pothole, smack into a curb or bounce over a speed bump too fast.

When looking at a bearing you can see the steel needles rolling around while the center stays put. When your wheels are going the needles are spinning constantly. Therefore, they need to be well lubricated.

How to packwheel bearings onatrailer

If you hear noises at the wheels, one explanation might be a need for a wheel bearing replacement at one or more wheels. The noises might be described as rattling, clicking, humming, growling, or squealing. It can be a real symphony of sound if you’re not careful.

Bearingpacking Tool

Recalls may not affect every vehicle of the same year, make and model. Use your VIN or plate to find out if your specific car has open recalls.

WheelBearingpacking tool

For more on any of these complaints – not to mention more than you ever knew you wanted to know about wheel bearings, read the full article

How togrease wheel bearings without removing

The Dark Horse team sees a lot of trailers come through our doors. Having worked in the ranching and rodeo industry for quite a while we understand the importance of a well maintained high quality trailer to haul your loads. Therefore, we help our clients get up to speed and make sure they are pulling and transporting trailers that are safe and will get the job done.

The short answer is: Not for too long. Having bad wheel bearings can range from inconvenient and unpleasant to downright dangerous.

For a national average across all vehicles, the average cost to replace the wheel bearings (for 1 wheel) is about $350 (including parts and labor). But KBB.com goes deeper than that. Based on analyzing 100s of actual repair orders, we put together the Kelley Blue Book Fair Repair Range to show you what you should expect to pay for this repair for your Honda. Simply tell us the year, model and style of your Honda and we’ll show you a fair price for the repair.

How togreaseawheelbearing

We explain it below, but to make it easier watch the video of our head welder explaining the proper way to pack a bearing.

This is an old school packing method. You’ll see how the bearing is angular. You want to pack the grease from the wide side until the grease comes out through the narrow opening at the top.

Take a palm full of grease and gently put pressure down and slide the bearing across your palm, picking up the lubricant along the way. You just repeat this on every part of the bearing. You’ll begin to notice that there is not rattling occurring in your bearing.

If you have bad wheel bearings, you might experience the vehicle pulling to one side, sloppy or loose steering, grinding and rattling noises, and uneven tire wear.

The term packing your bearing means that all of the gaps you see between the needles have to be stuffed full of grease or packed full of grease. That’s what someone means when they tell you that you need to pack your bearing.

If water, grit, salt or sand get to the bearings, the grease in the hub assembly gets contaminated. This will wear down the bearings, and they will eventually give out.