water in bearings on avon ride hubs

[Hugh Jardon]

i have an sbs trailer with avonride hubs and took the hubs off to check out the brakes to ensure they are all nicely free and not all rusty from the extensive dipping they have had the past couple of months.

you can just undo the nut holding the hubs on and the whole wheel and hub comes off in one complete lump with the bearing......fantastic

however

i noticed the bearings are not sealed for life items ~ good and bad i guess, are held in with a large circlip and have water in them!!!

i was thinking of removing the hubs and stripping the bearings and regreasing/packing with waterproof grease as will be doing a long drive up to pwilly this weekend

however does anyone have a view on if just having some water in the bearing, in the grease can cause probelms, i personally dont think so but wanted to checkwith the experts on here.

means i either repack the bearings before i go to pwilly or when i get back, trouble is before i might not have sufficient time

if i end up repacking the bearings i will take a few pics and post them here so if you have an avonride hub and not ventured to strip it down yet you can see what to expect, whats involved etc.....if that helps

[codprawn]

Well if there is plenty of grease and it's waterproof shouldn't be a problem - at least you can keep you eye on them and regrease as often as you want - with sealed hubs it's not so easy!!!

And to think people actually criticise Land Rovers for having grease nipples unlike "modern" vehicles that have sealed for life!!!

[Nasher]

Chris

If there is ANY water in there they need cleaning out and re-packing with waterproof bearing grease before you use it again, but c'mon, you know that.

If its not been in there long you will probably be lucky and it will not yet have attacked the surface of the rollers or taper faces. If it has you'll need to replace them before the trip to Wales.

Get some bearing savers on there to stop it happening again.

Nasher

[Hugh Jardon]

ok here is the latest

spoke with avon ride and discussed it with them, they indicated that there should be two large circlips holding the bearing in, one immediately behind the other...and the bearing should be a sealed unit, the second circlip can give the impression of a normal bearing.

what i found last night when doing the work in the dark with a spotlight was water coming out from what looked like the outer bearing race but was infact from behind the second circlip, which is immediately behind the first circlip. this gave the impression with all the grease there that water was coming from the bearing and water was mixed in with the grease.

i have stripped the hubs down again and this is indeed the case...phew i have packed the hubs with water proof grease and put copper slip all over the brake component bearing surfaces so hopefully now the job is a good one.

if you happen to take the hub cover off your y series avonride hubs bear this in mind if yu see water in the grease.......

[Mrs Jardon]

as an update, spoke with the good chaps at avonride last week, they sent me some new nuts, circlips and hub covers all foc as you should replace the nuts and circlips after use apparently, great bunch of folks and the trailer towed a dream over the 560 miles we did this weekend


also my mod to pull the break cable back after application in transit has worked a treat

the sbs trailers tow very well and would recommend them to anyone

[Nick Hearne]

Originally Posted by Mrs Jardon

as an update, spoke with the good chaps at avonride last week, they sent me some new nuts, circlips and hub covers all foc as you should replace the nuts and circlips after use apparently, great bunch of folks and the trailer towed a dream over the 560 miles we did this weekend


also my mod to pull the break cable back after application in transit has worked a treat

the sbs trailers tow very well and would recommend them to anyone

Glad to see you are so involved Mrs Jardon!