Posted by Rob Steller on Monday, March 22, 2004 at 5:00PM :
In Reply to: Re: Front Knuckle Grease posted by Clint Dixon on Monday, March 22, 2004 at 2:45PM :
Clint,
Just to continue the friendly debate, Semi's use oil in the non driving wheel bearings. Often you can see the level through the plastic bearing covers, and top it off through a rubber plug in the center. Also, if you look in Timken design manuals, they list bearing life times with oil or grease lube. The oil lube numbers are longer. I have converted several of my W300's to oil lube in the hubs (front and rear) by drilling a small hole through the hub body between the wheel bearing races. I can then turn the hole down to drain old oil out, then back to the top to pour in new oil. I roll to the side to check the level. I set them to be full at about the 4:00 position. This corresponds to about the bottom of the axel shaft. The hole is plugged with a small pipe plug. I run the same SAE140 synthetic oil that I run in my steering knuckles, so any leakage past the bronze bushings doesn't matter. Personally, if I get a bit of 140 mixed with the 90 in the front differential, I don't really care. Besides, the lip seals used in the axel housings will hold pretty well in both directions for a zero pressure application which this effectively is. I just like the idea that the oil will always be present on those hard to replace bronze bushings. Of course, I've put speedy sleeves on the spindles, and new wheel seals to keep that leakprobe synthetic in place. BTW, I placed O-rings around my rear axel shafts that ride on the inside of the spindles to reduce the possible oil exchange between hubs and rear differential. This would not be an issue in the FFPW's due to the outer seal that rides on the bearing nut. Rob