Wheel bearing greaser

[Jason]

2018 defender xt cab. Hd10. 

 

Looking for the greaser tool for front and rear wheel bearings. Lots listed online but hoping to find one that works without removing drive shaft or ball joints. Read somewhere the x3 might work but ball joint must be removed. 

[pmbaseball24]

Hey Jason. This is the one I bought for my 2020 hd10 max. You still have to remove the axle from the hub, but it wasn’t awful to do. Doesn’t show any o rings in the picture for some reason, but mine came with them. Won’t inject grease without them. Great tool! Good luck!

[Jason]

Did u just remove the lower ball joint to get it to work or the works?

[pmbaseball24]

Yes I had to remove the lower ball joints to slide the axle out far enough. Wasn’t too bad of a job. 

[Jason]

K. 

 

Thx. Was there much grease in from the factory?

[pmbaseball24]

Didn’t seem to be. It took about 15-20 pumps each from a battery powered grease gun until it was visible coming out the seals if I’m remembering correctly. Glad I did it. These come very under greased from the factory, which falls in line with videos I have watched online. Does the lack of being packed full increase the wear rate at all? I don’t know the answer but I sure feel better having them full. More grease=less room for water and dirt to hide IMO. Good luck with the project! Let me know how many pumps it takes you to fill yours up.

[Andystoy19]

BEARING RELUBRICATION

How often should I grease my bearings, and how much grease do they need?

• FOR STARTERS, note that most sealed bearings come pre-greased from the factory with a 25%-35% grease fill. This is all the grease the bearings will ever need, because the relubrication interval (explained below) is longer than the expected life of the bearing.
• DON’T JUST GUESS. It can be tempting to give the bearings a pump of grease each day, or to pump until grease comes out from under the seals.  However, this effectively destroys the seal’s ability to keep contaminants out of the grease; and too much grease “churns” inside the bearing, generating resistance and leading to rapid heat build-up.
• FREQUENCY: The accompanying chart shows approximate relubrication intervals. Start at the bottom by choosing your speed; follow the line straight up until you meet the curve that matches your bearing O.D., then go straight left to see the relubrication interval for your bearing type.

• AMOUNT: To find ounces, [(OD in inches) x (width in inches) x 0.114].  To find grams, [(OD in mm) x (width in mm) x 0.005].

(You can right-click and open the image in a new tab to see it full-size.)

 

• FOR EXAMPLE, suppose your application has a 6209 ball bearing, running at 1,750 RPM in a clean, smooth machine for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  A 6209 bearing has a shaft diameter of 45mm, an OD of 85mm, and a width of 19mm.  Using the chart and the formula, the bearing only needs 8 grams of grease every 10,000 hours.  If your grease gun delivers around 1.35 grams per stroke, that means the bearing needs 6 strokes every 13 months; you could average it out to a stroke every 8 weeks or so.

• When greasing a bearing by means of a zerk, make sure the zerk and the grease gun nozzle are clean, and if possible, make sure the zerk is always covered between greasings. Otherwise, you could be pumping dirt and contaminants straight into your bearings.

 

I don't want to start a war but this is an exerpt from a bearing manufacturer with regards to greasing. I have never had to regrease a bearing on a quad or sxs, but I don't put on the mileage alot of folks do? I have owned quads since they became available after the Honda trike "Big Red". On the boat trailers I give the "grease buddy" one shot in the spring and one in the fall per bearing and have not had a failure? On a truck one shot per zerk or just enough to see the boot (seal bulge slightly), no problem with tie rods or ball joints etc?

On suspension and open bushings etc. one shot is usually enough to displace the water, grease etc, once in summer once in the fall.

Just like lubricants there are a huge range of opinions and since you own the vehicle you make the choice that works for you!🙂 Mcguire Bearing Company

Edited April 22, 2020 by Andystoy19
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[pmbaseball24]

Interesting read for sure. Don’t worry, no wars will be started here. I personally enjoy wrenching on my stuff and learning as I go through the process. Here is a link to the video from another “bearing greaser” manufacturer that I watched before doing mine. Granted, these guys are trying to sell a product so of course they want you to pack that bearing full! Is it right or wrong?... who knows, I guess time will tell.

 

Jason, maybe you want to hold off on this project. I already went down the rabbit hole so it’s too late for me

Anyone else have any thoughts or opinions on this?

Edited April 22, 2020 by pmbaseball24

[Jason]

Ya. Will wait out till more folks chime in. 

Thx. 

[Hkb82]

I have never had to grease a bearing on any of my atvs or past utv machines and only changed out one rear set on my old Suzuki when one was bad atv was 10 yrs old so I just ordered both. After buying this defender I was seeing lots of bearing grease Tools I could buy. My thoughts at first were oh I guess I should get one so I can grease them as reg maintenance. Once I poke around on the web I find many pros and cons. I’m not really a deep mud hole rider.( cause the opportunity rarely comes in my damn sandy area). I’m guessing those guys are doing much more oiling and greasing of the units to keep water and mud from sitting in them. If my bearings were under mud more then above grade them I’d probably want to put fresh stuff in regularly. I’d still like to maybe do it once a year or so. Just my thoughts. I like to wrench on stuff though

[A hunt 2 remember]

I guess my thought to all is, How often do you relube your vehicles wheel bearings? The one you put lets say on average, 15,000 miles a year. Do you have ANYWHERE CLOSE to those numbers on your ATV? I think im gonna build a tire air exchanger. That way I dont have to run around tires with OLD AIR in them... 😉

Because lets face it, as we get older we run slower... Nice FRESH AIR in the tires and I'm sure I'll get another 10-15 HP.... ROFLMAO

From this date forward I'm gonna do a test. I have just over 1500 miles on my Defender XT HD10 and have done nothing to my wheelbearings. So.... I will do NOTHING to mine and keep you up to date as per their ride... As soon as i notice any grinding i will let you all know. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by A hunt 2 remember

[Hkb82]

Maybe it’s just me but I think I’m harder on utv bearings then my truck bearings. For the most part my truck is on paved roads and when it is in trails I’m deff not going through them like I am on my defender. I’m sure I prob overwork the load capacity and have mud and water up to the floor at points in my defender. Can’t say the same for my truck. I’ve also changed more wheel bearings on trucks then toys. I’m sure that’s as you mentioned due to the amount of miles put on a vehicle compared to your defender. Maybe I should be greasing my trucks bearings also. Nah working on the daily is not as fun as working on the toys. 

ill do the opposite test and also report back if or when I need a new wheel bearing for my defender. I’ve got around 1600km in my 2019 hd10xt so it should be pretty good comparison. 
also glad you reminded me to change the air in my tires. Who wants last years air in there. Lol. 

[A hunt 2 remember]

2 hours ago, Hkb82 said:

Maybe it’s just me but I think I’m harder on utv bearings then my truck bearings. For the most part my truck is on paved roads and when it is in trails I’m deff not going through them like I am on my defender. I’m sure I prob overwork the load capacity and have mud and water up to the floor at points in my defender. Can’t say the same for my truck. I’ve also changed more wheel bearings on trucks then toys. I’m sure that’s as you mentioned due to the amount of miles put on a vehicle compared to your defender. Maybe I should be greasing my trucks bearings also. Nah working on the daily is not as fun as working on the toys. 

ill do the opposite test and also report back if or when I need a new wheel bearing for my defender. I’ve got around 1600km in my 2019 hd10xt so it should be pretty good comparison. 
also glad you reminded me to change the air in my tires. Who wants last years air in there. Lol. 

I get the truck not getting the abuse that the toy gets. But at 55 I've had many off road rigs. Some of which were dual purpose. Sure now my truck doesn't get used off road like bear does. But back in the day I never played easy on my toys and they held up fine. Sure i did maintenance but but the wheel bearings? That would have been like replacing a throwout bearing just because... I guess another thing that gets me is, heat causes things to expand. If you were to FILL the bearing with grease, where would the grease go when it heats up and expands? It would seem, out the seals. So if the grease works "out" the seal.... Wouldn't that allow material in through that same gap? Especially if it cools under water. Im sure if you ask a dozen guys about this, you will get a dozen if not more replies...

If you go fishing, do you use the whole worm? Or half a worm? And if half a worm, which half is better??? Front half or back??? Synthetic (rubber) or real worm??? The list goes on and on.... 

[Hkb82]

When I saw you could buy a fitting to do the defender I just assumed they were not sealed. When your adding a squirt of fresh grease not FILLING it as you mentioned your not putting it through the seals so I’m guessing water could get in that same location. As I said I think the guys and gals that play in the swamps and mud holes would be the ones looking to do this more often.  I’m sure your average person would not benefit from doing this. But if you enjoy working on your toys. And there’s lots of us that do then  I don’t think a little SQUIRT every year or two would do damage. I hope you grease your trailers bearings lol jk  I’ve yet to change one of those that was not contaminated with stuff. Boat trailer bearings to be the best examples that’s prob a better comparison then a trucks bearings that are a sealed unit  

ps I like a full worm on my hook 

 

[Hkb82]

And throw out bearings are not greasable they are sealed units. Changing one would be a bit more work then a wheel bearing witch can be greased.