known

iTrader: (1)

Thanks exgr, no I wouldnt repack used bearings but thats my opinion. Im assuming Rice is saying he used the same bearing company again and just repacked like I did with the koyos?

Rice I hope they workout for ya! Can you save the hub and dremel the race off carefully? I did that on my old Integra hubs I had.

How many events/races did you use these for? They look cooked.

VTECIntegra9

you can reuse the hub if it does not have any witness marks from the inner race pounding or spinning.


EDIT: I saw your pictures on the last page... unfortunately, it looks like the inboard inner raceway spun on the journal and you will need a new journal to make the new bearing press correctly. You may risk improper preload if you leave it as-is.


And yes very carefully you can cut it... I prefer to make a large cut but not all the way thru and then use a chisel to crack it the rest of the way... then slide it off... that's what she said

rice_classic

I'm not really comfortable reusing hubs. I've just seen too many break on the race track.

I did not use the same bearing company. I think my former bearings were Koyos (purchased at NAPA) and these new ones are Timkens (but the bearing still has NTN etched on it).

I just looked at the race schedule from last year. These bearings/hubs saw 20 races last year and roughly 26 hours (1500 minutes) of race-weekend-track-time and that does not include Test and Tune days.

Ok, I don't feel to bad about replacing them now

known

iTrader: (1)

Thats pretty good abuse; you are racing way more than I can right now so Im curious to see how the repack holds up for you. Im going to be lucky to have another race this year. (baby coming this month that is going to kill my racing for now)

VTECIntegra9

The Timken with NTN in the box is completely an NTN bearing... not a bad thing. I worked in the aftermarket group at SKF and they have been contracted to supply a complete line of aftermarket premium bearings - so for all the ones they do not yet produce, they have to purchase from a competitor and put it in their box. They don't use any cheaper parts, they just simply don't make as much cash off of the bearing they don't make themselves. FYI!

VTECIntegra9

I had a response from one of the chassis engineer group leaders about grease in bearings. Here is his response to me:

known

iTrader: (1)

Thanks, he is right about our goal.

The seal damage thing, I know for mine, visually there was nothing damaged about them.

I removed pretty much all of the grease I was able to without damaging the cage or bearing.

I will be inspecting the hubs/bearings and will be able to tell if they are oozing at all or anything out of the normal.

rice_classic

I did not remove the plastic race for the ***** or the seals. I just removed the metal ***** to get scrape out as much grease as I could with the a small screw driver without scratching anything.

The Spec Miata guys have been dong this for years and years with great success on their rear bearings and another guy in an Integra (Boeing Engineer) decided to change out the grease in his CV's as well which stopped them from exploding (less heat, less expansion, boot no longer erupts).

Schaeffler makes a good point and I'm glad I was able to remove the majority of the grease without completely removing the seals and like known said... keep an eye on things.

known: my car was double entered, rented to a friend and also co-driven by my father. Father/son racing is super cool but that's the reason why it did so many races last year.

Tyson

yeah if you do it right, you dont damage the seal at all. you dont pry it out or even touch the seal. you push out the inner races from the middle.

as for attacking the rubber, well that might be possible.

known

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, the prying I did was just massaging the inner races out which caused 0 damage.

TeamNextGenChris

Guys,I just want to say thanks for all this info!

I've been bad and haven't replaced the front bearings/hubs on my car in four years,although it does see far less track time than some of the cars mentioned here(I'm lucky to put 20 hours of track time a year on it).
I've never experimented with different grease in the wheel bearings,but this time I will be trying something new.This past weekend I had both outer axle joints push grease out past the boot clamps from what looks like overheating.I think a combination of higher heat from the old wheel bearings and low quality grease in the reman'd axles led to this.

At my work we repack trailer wheel bearings with a particular grease(Sorry,I can't think of the name off the top of my head)that seems to hold up really well to heat.We have people who come in with trailers that are severely overloaded and go way too long between repacks.We see grease that has turned to the viscosity of light engine oil from this abuse.The grease we're now using will come back in the same trailers after the same use and still look brand new-still the same viscosity and still actually in the hub.

I always noticed after pulling my trailer for any more than a half hour or so that the wheels would be so hot I couldn't even touch them(and this is on a very well maintained,underloaded trailer).The freewheel axles felt just as hot as the braking axles,so I don't think the brakes are a factor in the heat buildup.After moving to this new grease last year,the wheels will be at ambient temperature,even after hours of continuous higher speed driving.I'm completely sold on it,and will post more info if anybody is interested.

Chris

known

iTrader: (1)

Glad to help.

Was this the grease? http://www.etrailer.com/Tools/LubriMatic/L11389.html

That has seemed to hold up for me so far in my trailer.

TeamNextGenChris

The grease I'm talking about is blue.
Not sure if it's that particular grease you linked to,but I do see trailers come in from time to time with red grease and it appears to hold up better than average.

rice_classic

Might be the Amsoil trailer grease for boat trailers. It's highly water resistant and blue.

Like doing the wheel bearings with the Amsoil racing 2000 grease, I just repacked my new axles with the Amsoil Polymeric NGLI2 Off-Road grease. Supposedly that's the same grease that Raxles uses in their axles.

known

iTrader: (1)

I heard about that grease after I packed my bearings. I have heard it does wonders especially for heavy duty use.

rice_classic

You referring to your axles or bearings? I don't think the GPOR2 grease is intended for wheel bearings (or high-heat bearings like ours).

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/gpor2.aspx

known

iTrader: (1)

Im referring to my trailer :p

TeamNextGenChris

Okay,finally remembered to take a pic of the grease I was talking about.
It's Amalie Hi-Tech Blue. The package says it's a lithium complex #2 grease.I haven't yet done any research into what exactly that means as far as how it relates to various uses.As I said before,this is what we use on wheel bearings at work and we've found nothing better.We've never tried any higher end synthetic greases,as this stuff works fine,so I can't say how it compares to the more expensive grease.I believe this stuff is about $15 for a 4lb tub.

known

iTrader: (1)

thanks for remembering!

TeamNextGenChris

Started cleaning my axles today to repack them and cleaned the knuckles up to be ready for new bearings/hubs.

Not trying to threadjack,but I think it's still relevant to the original subject:
I've done a good bit of searching on here,and haven't found conclusive answers for what brand of bearings and hubs to use.Some people have said the Timkens from Autozone are okay,some say they're not.Everybody says the OEM suppliers are good.The discount Honda OEM sites are around $80 per side.I've found Koyo brand on Ebay for around $50 per side(hoping they're not fake/reboxed!).Has anybody tried the Ebay ones and confirmed they're real?
Hubs:OEM is $132 per side.Auto parts stores and Ebay are much,much cheaper.Any particular brands other than OEM that work well?On Ebay I found a combo of a Koyo bearing with OEM part number'd hub for about $100 per side.

Obviously,the #1 priority is getting parts that WILL NOT break on track.However,all OEM parts would be over $400,and the Koyo setup off Ebay would be about $200.I'll certainly spend the money if necesary,but don't want to if I don't need to.

rice_classic

Timken, Nachi, NTN, SKF.

In the end though, I've proven to myself that the best bearing in the world is nothing without the right grease.

known

iTrader: (1)

Well, here is the thing about that ebay deal; I purchased it, the bearings are great but the hubs were slightly off. I replaced the studs with arp and they were loose which, was an easy fix by welding them to the hub.

Outside of that, they have worked fine so far. My fear is the heat that the small hubs are getting so I have cooling ducts directed to them for braking as well.

Please show your axle grease change or link it!

kingofbattle909

iTrader: (6)

How have these bearing been holding up over the years?

rice_classic

My bearings damn near feel like they are new. Last time I had an axle out (sept 2013) I spun the hub in the bearing and it felt great.

I now I have 2 full seasons (and 2 championships) with lots of double entering, 1 hour enduros, 4 hour test days, renting my car to other drivers etc and they still feel great. I have reached the point of my goal: I'm probably going to replace the hub before I need to replace the bearing. And wasn't that the point?

Buying OEM axles and replacing the grease has been a huge help as well.

known

iTrader: (1)

I wanted to bring this back up and see how its panned out for some of you?

My race car was sold, but I had great success doing this myself.

Anyway, curious to see what you guys post....it was fun doing this and discussing it a year ago or so.