Another wheel bearing question

Should not move.

Remove nut, repack/whatever, Replace on axle and tighten the nut while turning the wheel/tire combo. You want to tighten the nut until the bearing play is gone, then a bit more so it gets just barely hard to rotate the tire, then back off the nut to the first available slot and install the cotter pin. What you are trying to do is eliminate free play and preset the load on the bearing as well.

Since this is a boat I would actually install bearing buddies and not worry about repacking as long as you give them a shot of good grease when you use the trailer. The BB units apply light spring pressure to the grease and keeps water out.

Note- all advice void if there are actual instructions for the hub...

If this is two tapered roller bearings facing each other and separated by a decent amount of space (not right up against each other), a small amount of rocking movement is acceptable, and preferable to it being too tight. If you can feel it but not really see it, it's not too loose.

Tighten by backing it off and making it too loose, then use channel locks to make it just snug, then back off to the next keying location. Good wheel bearings use a nut with a 12 position cap that engages the nut and the cotter pin.

Really fancy wheel bearings will have instructions that say to tighten the nut to nnn in-lbs, then loosen ddd degrees.

If you only have the choice of a course adjustment, and you have to make the call between what seems tight and what seems loose, well, that's why they call it a judgement call.

Too tight is solely defined by shortening the life of the bearings.

If you do not want to have any movement when trying to rock it, use the very first notch that eliminates all rocking, no more.

Dave

Whenever I did this with my car, I'd put the nut on finger tight, spin the wheel, and tighten down the nut until there was enough drag to stop it spinning, then back off the nut to the nearest (previous) cotter pin hole.

I can't see any reason that wouldn't work on a trailer if it has tapered bearings.

Have Fun! Rich

Ball or roller? Tapered Rollers should have just a touch of play. Generally take the nut snug (zero clearance) and back off one flat. Should JUST feel the play when wiggling the wheel.

NO preload on tapered rollers - or they overheat and they are done. You want just enough play when at ambient temp that they do not tighten up when hot. Oil lubed can be a bit snugger than greased - but NEVER preload.

Ball bearing hubs (remeber the old Chevies) used a bit of preload to avoid shock brunelling.

Agreed.

With Fords, it was torque to 25 foot pounds, then loosen and retighten to 25 inch pounds. The nut was a standard hex but the cover was castellated, so you could install it and the cotter pin without moving the nut.

Those are good, but people forget to check the wheel bearing play when they're on there.

-- Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. -- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

I did the front wheel bearings on one of our vehicles recently - a Ford with "sealed unit replacable" hubs. The bearings are sealed & you replace the whole hub. The bearings have a spacer and the install torque is ~ 300Nm.

I'd initially installed it with the normal "tighen then back it off" method. Luckily I did some web-reading and tightened it up before any harm was done. The nut wasnt the usual castellated split pin style, it was like a nylock nut but without the nylon.

Here's how Dexter recommends the bearings on my 5th wheel be adjusted.

Page 54.

HTH Bob rgentry at oz dot net

A "stover" nut - officially known as a "prevailing torque" nut.

Which is EXACTLY what I recommended.

wrote

So, is a castle nut with slices for a cotter pin a stover nut? I know they make castle nuts with no slits, and IIRC, some are kind of crimped to hold and resist backoff.

I like stumping the guys at Ace, and would like to have a new word du jour.

So, is a slotted castle a stover? Universally?

Steve

"Steve B" wrote in message news:gRB1q.23164$ snipped-for-privacy@news.usenetserver.com...

Talking about lock nuts, go to the

yank the tiny scrollbar halfway down to Locknut_01 and _02. I came up with this to hold the lower bearing on the swivel of a log truck loader clam. The cheap and quick way to fix this is just tack weld the original nut! ;>)} phil k.

Just got a new small boat trailer (with a little jon boat) with oil bath bearings. The caps are clear plastic and you can see the oil in there. I'm going to have to read up on them. Supposedly they're great for boat trailer service.

Pete Keillor

No, a SLOTTED castle nut is generally NOT a stover. A "Stover" is a type of "prevailing torque" nut, along with fibre-lock and ny-loc nuts. They do not use cotter pins.

"Pete Keillor" wrote

To ME, boat trailer bearings depend on some very basics. In my situation, I took my boat and trailer on an 80 mile round trip, 65 freeway speed. Usually, it's a 15 mile round trip to the local lake at 40 mph tops. Lots of guys just take their boats on short jaunts, and not at high speeds. Those little tires really spin at 70 mph behind a truck on the freeway. So, even a boat trailer with worn or loose bearings would last a very long time at low speeds, and minimal distances. I don't like to operate like that, though. This trip, which was the furtherest I have gone from home, I stopped by and got a spare wheel and tire. May come in handy, mebbe not..... But having "stuff" right is just as easy as ignoring it and running it into the ground and/or ditch, and less expensive, too.

Some boats are very light weight, some heavier, and that makes a LOT of difference.

The 80 mile trip up the mountain sucked. The boat ran crappy at the 9,000+ elevation, far higher than it was jetted and tuned for. The fish weren't biting, and all we caught were chub. But, we were going for splake, and chub is good splake bait. It was cold and windy and whitecapping, with the spray making it even colder. Then the Sikorsky S-64 came in and dusted us with a lot of mist. But it was better than working. But only a little.

Back to reality on the containers at 0600 tomorrow.

Steve

wrote

Gotcha. Thanks.

Steve