To remove wrinkles from denim, rub dish soap or heavy-duty laundry detergent onto the stain and leave it for 10-15 minutes. Wash the garment in warm water as the fabric can withstand. If the stain shows up again when the garment dries out, repeat the process. De-anti-seizing is the least difficult part, but it is the least difficult.
Start by finding a heavy-duty liquid laundry detergent, such as Never-Seez, which serves as a protective coating on metal parts even after extended exposure to the environment. By following these techniques and tips, you can easily remove wrinkles from your denim and achieve a smooth, polished look.
To maintain the sizing of your jeans, follow these tips:
- Wash jeans according to your body’s inseam lengths.
- Inseam lengths should be tailored to suit your body.
- Styling should be done correctly, including washes, sizing, and fabric blends.
- Avoid using white teflon pipe sealant paste, which will permanently color clothes.
- Use alcohol or acetone to remove any anti-seize residue.
- Avoid using powdered aluminum and boiled linseed oil, as they are solid particles suspended in a paste.
- Anti-seize is most useful in preventing galling and in hot environments where regular grease would burn.
- Use non-chlorinated brake cleaner, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, soap, and water to clean your jeans.
📹 How to Remove Anti-Seize from Your Hands and Other Surfaces without Harsh Cleaners or Water
If you have ever used Anti-Seize when working on a car or other equipment, you know about its magical powers, and we aren’t …
📹 How to GREASE, Un-Seize and Clean SEALED Bearings
Proper grease amounts, cleaning, disassembly and reviving seized Stuff I used in the video: WHERE I buy my new sealed …
I worked for a bearing manufacturer and this is the best advice I’ve seen about how much grease to use. No one ever goes back to the people who make the bearings to ask. And if you did you might just get a lot of equations from an engineer. One company has a chart. But your advice of about 25% of full pack is good. Cleaning it out with acetone works but it is not good for the plastic cages on some bearing and it is bad for the rubber seals, so be careful. WD-40 is pretty benign and only takes a little longer.
I was a Maintenance and Engineering Manager for 30yrs +. 50% of bearings fail due to lack of lubrication and 50% fail due to too much. If you overpack a bearing, it will overheat and as grease is 90% oil, it will simply leak out causing premature failure. All the bearing manufacturers issue tables of the amount of grease per bearing and the frequency of lubrication (which is dependent on load, size, speed and environment). You are quite right, sealed bearings do need to be relubed (which can be a pain if they are located at the non drive end of a motor).. Again, the bearing makers offer superb maintenance advice for free. Hope this helps
I worked for many years at a specialty bearing manufacturer. Grease fill rate should be 30% standard use, 50% max for high temperature C4 bearings. Bearings are so cheap it’s not worth the labor to remove seals (most people will distort them which will lead to premature failure) unless you’re dealing with electric motor quality bearings (again, most will warp the seal during disassembly and will press the seal too deep during reassembly).
I had an arguement with a fella years ago about this. I told him that you can service and relube a sealed bearing. He said the name itself tells you that you can not. he was fresh out of trade school too. I then asked him this. ” Tell me how the oil escaped from a sealed bearing then ” he actually got mad and started yelling as he had no answer. lol
In 2010 I bought a 1992 Geo Metro. Not long after, the wheel bearings started going out. The new bearings only had a small speck of grease–less than an 1/8 inch diameter. These are sealed ball bearings like in the article. I greased them properly and now have over 180,000 miles on the bearings with no problems. By the way, if you are the same sixtyfiveford who detailed how to change axles on my car (this was on the geo metro forum), thank you. Your method was much simpler and easier than my first attempt.
The big move in grease today in the industrial sector is towards synthetic base calcium sulphonate grease. Higher moisture repellent qualities, and much longer service life. There are more of this type available retail now than a few years ago. I have a feathering propeller on my sailboat that requires a grease with lower viscosity and high washout resistance, so Chevron Black Pearl NLG-1 is on duty 10:10
Traditionally Grease is farther down on the fractional distillation tower and contained the paraffin and waxes. Below wax you start getting into plastics like polyethylene. Modern days, who knows what they put in it, but I certainly hope that they don’t use clay because that will be abrasive even at a very minuscule level. It is what is used in very fine polishing compounds
Good information and I use the same type of grease you showed at the end. I have a riding mower that gets grease after the season and mid-way into the season. It is still using the same bearings in the front wheels that were factory installed and this year it is still running after 12 years. Some of the belts and pulleys have been replaced in the past two years, but overall it has been reliable. I was surprised the drive belt lasted as long as it did, but I bought an OEM to replace it and replaced the one pully that caused it to lock up and break the belt. I still hear some noise, so it looks like I have to go back again and check the bearings on the ones I didn’t replace. This information may be helpful once I get those idler pulleys out.
Does this apply to wheel bearings? I was taught growimg up in the 80’s n 90’s to use a glob of grease in the palm and push n rotate the bearing into it, and everyone would fill the outer spindle cup thing you hammer on full of grease . Than i started using the cone shaped bearing packers that you put a grease pump on. Hands always get covered in grease. I like your method mych better. Btw i made a set of custom picks out of old junk screw drivers. Pretty sure i got that idea from one of your old vids. Thanks n keep em coming.
I use graphite grease it’s the best.i learned this trick years ago from a city employee that mows for the city ..they were burning bearings weekly on the blade spindles. The trick was to remove one the seals on the upper and lower bearings..now they last 5 times longer.i did this to mine it’s been years since I’ve replaced a spindle bearing.i see ginger is enjoying warmer temperatures..lol..looks like you are too..see you on the next one Cheers friend 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Touch your lawnmower spindle housing right after you’ve mowed. The housing will be hot. The grease thins out when it gets hot. The oil part of the grease can seep out under the pressure, heat and gravity. Any squeaking or growling coming from the mower deck is a dead giveaway that the spindles need servicing. Do all the spindles at the same time because if one is making noise? It won’t be long before the other ones will too.
Believe it or not…that red and tacky grease works AWESOME…and if the bearings get hot, the grease melts, gets liquidy, then flows to the parts that need the grease…self lubricating 🙂 Keep em coming!!!! I used to 3D print fidget spinners when they were “the new hotness” I would literally buy rollerskate bearings 608ZZ, then soak em in a jar with acetone and shake em a bit to get the grease out…no grease bearings spin MUCH more free (great for low rpm fidget spinners) but lousy for high speed/high heat uses 🙂
I use 00 grease for lubing stuff up a lot. Used to be called Snapper00 grease but Tractor Supply has it called ‘Cotton Picker Shaft Lube’. I got 2 quarts a month ago and that’s about all I could find online and get local. It’s a cross between stiff and liquid. Snapper used to use it in their trannys on riders and walk behinds and is good for loosening up the grease already inside something. And I drip oil right inside the seal of a bearing while the shaft is turning but you have to watch and not get wound up. Ex-mark sent me an update for a belt drive mower about installing a zerk fitting because the OEM tranny used bentonite clay as lube that dries out and the tranny dies. The gun grease kept everything moving and the bentonite honest. I did it and the rig is still running. Poor dried out doggie! BLESSINGS to yall!
I always fill the bearing to about 60% and so far I haven’t had a problem. I bought a set of belt pulleys on the car some time ago, and on the new ones I sprayed the old vaseline and used a new, better quality one. The pulleys have been working for 30k km without a problem, I recently had a belt down and they spin perfectly with a gentle resistance. Regarding the type of grease – never use EP (extreme pressure) grease on bearings that have a bronze or brass cage – EP additives are corrosive to copper alloys.
If you have a slow rotating bearing such as on an electric gate or even a mountain bike then almost filling the bearing is the way to go, it will never overheat, it turns too slowly, and will last almost forever. Even when fitting new bearings they come with the amount of grease for high revs and should be repacked if used for slow rotation. If they are full of grease, water ingress or condensation just does not happen and they do not ‘dry’ out which is why they will then last almost forever.
Thank you! I have experienced the negative results of over greasing first hand. When we renovated the engine room on a large commercial fishing boat the electric motors and pumps for circulating seawater, hydraulics and fuel transfer had to be realigned. I was running out of time in the shipyard so I had their shipwright perform that task. The old boy spent what seemed like hours lecturing me on the evils of too much grease. I ran the boat for another two months following the shipwright guideline of ‘one shot a day per bearing’. Everything ran fine. When the owner came back to run the boat for a crab season he also started pumping these bearings full of grease every night. About three weeks later a bearing seized. When I replaced the bearing I found pounds of grease encasing the bearing. Asked the owner about it and he blew up saying there was no such thing as too much grease. After the fourth bearing went out he finally agreed to leave the grease gun alone. For the next two years that I stayed with the boat we never had another bearing failure. Grease kills.
Grease in the old school definition is oil with a metallic soap. Regular bar soap is sodium stearate, but lithium can be substituted for example. New styles of grease have everything from teflon to Molybdenum disulfide, fibers, graphite and other thickening or waterproofing agents and synthetic oils.
On Trek BB90 bearings you can pack them full without worry using Phil Woods hydrophobic grease. They don’t spin fast enough to overheat and expansion will push excess out into the outer dust seal area anyway which should also be filled with grease, all to keep water and sweat out. The Trek frames have a real issue with water and bottle sweat flowing down to the BB outer dust seal so everything you can do to keep it out will extend bearing life, including using SS angular contact bearings (which Hambini doesn’t like much), but I digress. They’ve worked for me for many years.
i used to work with diamond grinding machines used the mill down concrete wet. at the end of the day you absolutely had to grease the pillow blocks on the main shaft until it came squirting out everywhere pushing the water out of the bearing. if you didn’t do that every day of use the bearings would seize in 1` night. these were expensive tapered roller pillow blocks. cost $500 a pair 30 years ago . and the time to change them was also crazy as one of them was sandwiched between a nut and the entire pack of 150 diamond blades. so in that application you pack the bearing 125% with a grease gun.
I watched a article a few years ago where these replacement mower hubs on lawn tractors have a grease fitting but have sealed bearings. I think that explained why my replacement only lasted a few years and the original lasted close to 20, plus I’d bet the replacement was inferior quality to start with.
Thanks a lot for the info, Moe! Glad to learn about the 25% factor, as I’ve been packing bearings the way I saw them done on automotive websites – filling them up completely. Who knew?! I’d always choose to free up a frozen or janky-sounding bearing and flush them out first before tossing (in case they’re still serviceable), so this article is right up my alley. I recently commented on another website about the creator throwing out a frozen lawn tractor pulley which might very well have been saved in a few minutes instead of waiting for an ordered one to arrive. Saving time and $ – that’s me! 😉
If you pack bearings full of grease it will churn like a stalled hydraulic pump and generate a lot of heat. It also (excess grease) applies drag to the whole surface of the ball/roller and will actually stop it from rolling, instead it will slide on the races and destroy the bearing. I learned this the hard way, lol.
I carefully pop out the seals, soak the bearing in Benzene which quickly dissolves and loosens all the muck. I then vertically submerse half the bearing in clean Benzine and spin the bearing till it runs freely. This helps to flush out all micro bits and pieces, then I repeat that in clean Benzene again. Once done it evaporates quickly and can be repacked with suitable grease. I’ve done my one vacuum cleaner twice in many years, still fine. Also did my Golf 4 Variant alternator belt tensioner when it became noisy, 40 thousand kilometers on and still fine. FYI – The Benzene I’m using is not the Cancer causing Benzene, BENZINE is, but I still wear gloves and work in a relatively well ventilated area.
If you have bearings that you intend to reuse and they are full of old grease and thickener put them in an old counter top oven, I put them in at 200deg for about 20 min. The old thickener and grease melts out leaving mostly oil film behind. It saves on degreaser, and expensive aerosol degreaser. Afterward clean the bearings out thoroughly, re apply grease put the seals back on and use them. Don’t let the oven get too hot, don’t let the oven cook out the old stuff and dry out, just melt the old grease out.
Considering many of the comments, it seems your article has done some good regarding the nature and repackability of sealed bearings. That said, how much grease to use, and the potential for either longevity or premature failure is still a matter of opinion. I have never had a repacked bearing fail in service in some 60 years, and I routinely overpack bearings because, 1, that’s how I do it, and 2, sealed bearings aren’t actually sealed, as demonstrated with your dirty bearing that had dirt in it, not to mention that if the oil in the grease has dried out, it has to have gone somewhere. Every failed bearing I have seen has been factory greased, and not one of them had enough grease to start with. So I would say if you wish to maintain that over packing bearings is bad for bearings, please prove it.
very interesting I have some bearings on a hand trolley that are fubar (been in the rain, one is crunchy like square balls) now i know how they work a bit better i might be able to break the cage and set the balls to allow the wheel to come off (inner race stuck on axle) good article i’ll be looking at the next sealed bearing with a bit more maintenance oriented checking
Soo if i understood this right. The soap/thickener works as a buffer for the oil. Releasing a small oil enough oil film for the bearings. Also soaking up excessive oil. When packing too much. The thickener maybe churns around. Probably also insulate the heat. Leading too, too much oil release that leaks away. Subsequently degrading the oil-holding properties of the thickener. Am i right? Also i guess it depends on application. In a push bike. Its whatever since the bearing dont spin that fast. Automotive/machinery, very critical to pack orderly, because of high rpm. Regarding grease I buy from the big manufacturers like SKF “guess they know there stuff” instead of going on random internet reviews, since this is quite hard too quantify. Or follow the manufacturer instructions
Ridiculous. Gasoline and a toothbrush much better – cheaper and easier on bearing seals too. ONLY grease when totally gasoline cleaned and dried (I use the hot sun in summer or an electric heater blower in the cold). When you can’t smell the gasoline any more it’s ready for around 50% grease of choice (that’s another story). One of the reasons you clean it is to NOT MIX GREASES.
I have a Ford E-350 with 37k original miles that sat outside for awhile and has seen ALOT of snow. The alternator whistles dixie. I took the bearings out and they were completely dry. I repacked them with grease and they are now 50% better. If you spin them in your hand and perform tge typical GUY TEST and say yup looks good that has NO indication of what it will do. Only illustrate that it is not FUBAR. I have tensioner pulleys and idler pulleys that do not make a whisper yet they feel crunchy in the hand. These alternator bearings make a whistling sound only at idle!!!! I am 100% sure!!! I have measured said bearing with a inside/outside digital caliper and it DOES NOT match with any bearing size in existence. Im serious. $10 bearing. Give me a break. I could buy a new alternator because the sound makes the vehicle feel junky, but it works like a champ so who knows if it’ll ever happen.
Definitely worth doing it. I just regreased some of my old power tools with thicker truck axle grease (considering the bigger gap created by years of worn out). They are now running super smooth without any funny vibration and clicking noise. In general, I would suggest: the bigger the bearing, the thicker the grease; the older the bearing, the thicker the grease.
Great info thanks! I’m searching for u-joint, as in driveline, comparisons. Do you know anyone who has compared wear, load abilities, and resistance to operational grime with OEM new u-joints and a few popular aftermarket brands too? Like Moog to Spicer to Toyota to GM, etc. I am especially interested in tests between the same size of competitive brands of both sealed and re-greaseable universal joints.
Disclaimer: I’m not a tribologist, only a bearing engineer. Make sure you use a compatible grease. Not all thickeners play nice. If in doubt, either replace the bearing (best option) or thoroughly clean the old grease out. IMO screwing around with this isn’t worth your time vs just replacing with a good quality new bearing. In all likelihood, the one you install will be better quality and have a higher dynamic load capacity (last longer) than the old one.
Absolutely disagree😋 Except that this way I and you know as well as others who know about this. And in my opinion, this information is as old as when Jesus wore shorts. The reservation that is used to maintain machines and the like. approximately 97% run too long so the bearings are already destroyed. And many do not have the tools to do this. But as I’m just now changing the bearings on my boat trailer. So I will test. remove all existing grease and lubricate “your” way and leave the other “original” Also change the bearings on my car trailer and do as most recommend remove the inner seal on the bearings and put a grease nipple there. will return in a year. 😉
Bearings are so cheap, it’s generally not worth it. Re greasing at the right interval is more important but you can’t un-damage bearings. Dry bearings fair enough but any gritty feeling or extra play and just replace it. It’s much worse to have a bearing fail completely and destroy something rather than throwing away a bearing with 6months to a year left on it. Just change them. You’ll know what bearings are critical and which ones aren’t. Run non critical bearings to failure though as long and removing the rings won’t be difficult or damage the equipment.
If you can hear bearing noise over engine noise, that bearing has more going on than just lack of lubrication. Bearing manfacturers know what they’re doing. The grease fill is intended to last the average useful life of the bearing and they don’t intend for you to pop those seals out. Yes, if you clean and re-pack, it will quiet down for a little while. It’s just not worth your time unless you simply can’t afford to buy a new one. In my industry, we do use sound to tell us when a bearing needs lube. It’s low-intensity ultrasonic frequencies though. By the time a bearing gets to where you can hear it, there’s already damage done.
One thing to point out, re greasing a bearing needs full cleaning (even preferably with an ultrasonic cleaner) if you are using a new grase type and you’re not sure of its composition. There are plenty of grease types with different thickener material which are not compatible with each other when in contact, once they mix they change composition, harden up or disintegrate.
I have a machine that has a heavy belt driven power take off pully with two 6305 2RS bearings pressed into the ends of the pully. Without using a bearing puller to remove the pressed in bearings, I can only access one side of each bearing. I figure using a slide hammer to pull the bearings is going to potentially do more harm than re-packing will do good. So I remove what I can of the old grease and press in a dose of new grease from one side of each of the two bearings. So far, so good over the past 8 years and doing so every other year. I prefer shear stable polyurea grease for what that is worth,
I pop the seals first with a fine needle then finish lifting up the seal with pick/small screwdriver, wash the bearing in kerosene until all bits of old grease is gone, spray the bearing with a jet of water to wash out the kerosene, then quickly compress air the bearing until dry … pack (but not overpack) with name brand synthetic grease..press in seals ..wala
One thing not mentioned is that you can tell if a bearing is failing simply by listening while in operation. The first thing you hear is that it will make a low pitched whistling noise and then a slight rumbling. Almost always after that they will have a loose wobble to them. By then it is too late for grease. It does not happen often but, if these conditions go too long, it can lock up completely and the inner part of the bearing will rotate on the spindle causing it to be ruined. Don’t buy the cheap ones! Fafnir, Timken or SKF are good quality.
I take a new bearing pop the seal clean out the grease and fill with enough grease round about 65% grease in the the gap as the manufacturer doesn’t put enough grease in the first place so they can sell more. Why 65% is that when the bearing spins central fungal force flings it to the outer part of the bearing and grease the bearing but if your bearing slightly gets hot there is enough expansion in the air gap plus if the bearing cools the grease wil flow back where if you use only 25% this doesn’t happen plus grease is not just there to lubricate but a cleaning agent and a cooling agent. Doing it my why the bearings last way longer. I’m 30 plus years a master mechanic and I have not had bearing failures of grease that got dry or ceized up because of heat. When the bearings are worn-out they still look polished and not pitted also deu to that the grease cleans the surface allowing the contamination to go elsewhere instead of staying with a on a fraction of grease as with a lot more grease there is also more movement on the grease as it needs to clear the bearings rollers or balls that does not happen with just 25% grease. Had never had a bearing fail due to to much grease. And the machines I work on is heavy duty truck and earth moving machines but there is a down side if you are a boy/girl racer then you’d probably want less grease but this comes with it’s own problems then I’d recommend a minimum of 40% if you don’t want to spend more times replacing bearings than racing. Yes I have been a master mechanic all my life and my clients book and pay me up one month up front for me to work on their machines and personal vehicles in my region that tells you how good my work is.
No1 failure of electric motors bearings is over greasing, we evolved to greasing bearings while running and using ultrasonic monitoring to tell when bearing noise changed indicating sufficient grease in electric motors and conveyors, elevators etc and increased bearing life cycles by 400% in some cases
I know im late but i had to add this those plastic pulleys appear to be off of riding mower ill add that when you replace them the replacement pulley is generally made in china and they generally either have no grease in them at all or very little grease and they do fail prematurely if you dont pop the seals and grease them prior to installation ask me how i know
30 years ago when I was an apprentice, as we know the fun jobs were repacking wheel bearings in trucks was for the apprentice to do, I was told that pack the bearing as normal and a little on the cone. Don’t fill the hub full of grease as it retains the heat and will cause the grease in the bearing to burn, thus early bearing failure. We had a fleet of new trucks that had wheel bearing issues, and the hubs were packed full from the factory, burned grease around the bearing and about a kilogram of new grease in the hub. People look at the smaller bearings in the article and say it has bugger all grease in it, let’s pack it full, don’t understand the properties of grease.
Dissagrees most you said= Alabama power plant supervisor/ removed 4 ft bearings… the more grease the better !!! the longer between clean/re-grease… yes.. will sling it. lol… longest last bearing float in oil baths… 75% full… car bearings .. you pack full ever 2 yrs… use teakin hard japan bearings.. last 50 yrs .. if keep them maint…. they get hot .. fill were needed and just need a 2 yr clean/re-pack… USE DEISEL ..parts cleaner.. alot cheeper.. ! STUPID ..spray $8 to 10 $ can …
I clean the outside of the bearing and submerge the bearing in a mixture of thick oil like STP or LUCAS in small bowl. Placed in a vacuum chamber. Pump out the air and then let the air back into the chamber so the thick oil seeps into the bearing. Works great and then the bearings run smooth. Not a perfect solution but it works. And is quick and easy.
I didn’t know this. I figured sealed meant…SEALED, as in crimped, or some way inaccessible. Years ago my bright idea was to take a bearing and heat up some grease in a small pan on the stove being careful not to get it too hot, put bearing in and let cool. It worked very well but for bearings that need cleaning, not a good idea.
I repaired air tools in an automotive factory for over ten years a noisy bearing got thrown out and replaced with a new one who tries to clean and regressed a five dollar bearing for a thousand dollar air tool or a six thousand electric power tool that reports its readings to a torque management system I understand if you are hard up against it for money then you do what you have to
How do I tell you thank you enough on this information. This is my second comment on this article and today March 30th 2024 I took the two idler pulleys apart on my zero turn and your information was exactly correct as I dug out all of the hardened grease and dirt. I used carb cleaner along with PB Blaster to flush out all the remaining junk. I also used greased lightning with hot water to clean them more then blew them out with compressed air. I saw exactly what you were talking about with putting to much grease into them. After greasing them I put them back on the deck and spun them and they spun freely and there was no noise. I’m 100% certain if I had caught the one that is destroyed now that I could have saved it. The new idler pulley that I’m going to purchase will be taken apart and cleaned and repacked with the exact type of grease that you used as my three tubs of grease are the exact type but all three are different colors as you stated. Now to take the spindles off of it and take them apart and clean and regrease the bearings in them also. Again thank you is an understatement on the information of the 25% amount of the grease. I’m sure glad I have been subscribed to you.
I used to take those seals off and do exactly what you have done, and I also used to take the pick and use it to put a little hole in the seal then I would get my needle bearing grease fitting and attach it to my grease gun and pump a small amount of grease through the hole I made in the seal and then re-seal the hole I never ever had a problem I am a 71 year old retired heavy duty mechanic and I to also got into arguments about greasing sealed bearings and about over greasing a bearing over greasing is not good and it is just a waste of grease got into a lot of arguments over that one, but at the end of the day I was right.
I heard GINGER is the brains behind this outfit… but sixtyfiveFord is pretty good too. Found his website several weeks ago, and have been working my way thru his brain (or in sequence of stuff that’s breaking down at his house… as folks bring in stuff to repair…. or his glorious garbage day finds). Trouble is…. he usually shows ya how to repair an item (say a dryer) – so ya HAVE TO find one on garbage day, before ya can make a “cool looking” shop heater. BIG THUMBS UP to sixtyfiveFord………….. and Ginger.
When I was working as a mechanic well over 20 yrs ago I used to wash the old grease out in the parts wash bath. Then I would use compressed air without spinning the bearing fast until it was clean. I used to repack ball bearings with Shell Alvania I think it was called. It’s what we used to grease all the bearings on our vibrating screens in the quarry. It seemed to be far superior to other greases for longevity of bearings and I used it in rebuilds of engine water pumps. On truck trailer hubs the black molybdenum disulfide grease seemed to take a lot of heat and bearings lasted well. 🚚
if you want to do it right, especially on the ones with the metal seal plates, I’ll inform you. Old grease should all be removed before adding grease. To do it without removing covers you HAVE to use a vacuum generator of some type. Vac cup the size of the o.d. of the bearing is held against rubber seal laid on bearing to create good seal. Run the vac pulling grease out, into a Seperator cup (allows vac to escape but not the grease). to regrease simply apply grease to opposite face and it will lube by itself. hope this helps someone.
In the old days, we packed tapered bearings all the way full and half way full in the hub. We could adjust the tension and it worked well. Never had any issues and they ran the life of the car or truck. Grease flows outward due to centrifugal force and cycles itself in the hub. Usually regrease on brake changes. However, the new roller bearings don’t work that way and usually burnout in a short time. They too spin the grease to the outside of the race. That’s why you don’t pick the cover from the outside edge, it will cause a leak point. The problem is, they wear down the race area compared to taper bearings and regreasing is often a waste of time and they will start humming in a short time and need replacing anyway. I’ve done it a few times and they just don’t last.
i have assembled several hundred small PMA’s (permanent magnet alternator) they were designed using case and shaft of the late 1960’s Camaro alternator. i used vaseline on the end of every shaft on the cup roller bearing, my boss told me that vaseline is simply whipped mineral oil, whipped untill it gets micro air bubbles and becomes thick, basically grease without the filler.
Seems like sealed bearings need a high-lubricity oil with stable film properties – that would be dependent on service needs, but maybe a 10-40 or better (10-50) oil. That’s because with the double containment of cage and seal, a paste is not called for but a flowing agent – oil. Which brings us back to the idea of the SEALED bearing – it’s suppsed to be lubed once and forever. Unfortunately this is only to the limits of the oil – and that does require servicing – 100% cleaning, and re-oiling. Grease is a bad choice.
I like using a product by Berkbile called 2+2 Gum Cutter. It evaporates slower than acetone and I have never had it leave a residue. It comes in aerosol cans and is available at many auto parts stores. Yes, due to the rpm many of these turn, packing with grease is not necessary. For those disbelievers, take apart a new bearing and inspect how much grease the manufacturer uses then think of how long the service life can be for its application. Different bearing and application, I still see people packing wheel bearings and then placing grease in the hub center in the cutout. Once grease gets out of the bearing from rotating and age, it does not run back into the bearing. That is an old wives tale from year ago and it is hard to change peoples habits. They would rather waste the grease for fear they are going to cause the bearings to burn up.
Any of my corded tools that run higher rpm, are strong, and made in China….. their bearings that fail have that clear-looking grease in them. Sometimes they are dry as well when I pull them apart. The bearing industry has a standard (in percentages) of how much grease to put back, depending on load factors and rpm.
There is a science to this and Rule of thumb is that bearings should be filled to 30-40% of their space and housings 30-60%. Standard bearing space is found by the formula V=KxW where V is the quantity of bearing space open, K is the bearing space factor and W is the mass. Most bearing manufactures list K factors based on bearing type.
So what do you do if the bearings are encased in steel? I removed an abandoned Instep Child Bike Trailer from the path. It was clogged up with fishing line so badly that it actually bent the axle. I think it may even be a hardened axle as it has that deep yellow zinc coating. After a long battle with the stupid snap ring I was shocked to find no ball bearing dropping out. Also could you cover getting out a sealed bearing from a bike (french made Wolber wheel — somewhat collectible.) in which the shaft broke in the middle? Blind bearing removal I believe it’s called. The last thing I wonder about is the right amount of grease. I worked in a big national name gas station and I remember they had an air bearing packer. Wouldn’t this overpack it and if so why would a big company do that? (especially if it is going to lead to premature failure)
This article undermines itself !!!!!!! He works on a very dirty workbench, while utmost cleanliness is the first requirement for longlivity, or long sustainability of bearings. According an SKF lecture: (for nothing) 40% fails due dirt (=leaky seals) 30% fails due wrong fitting (e.g. tolerances wrong chosen), other 30% due other factors, such as short overloading (pulses, jolts), electric currents (arching) etc…. – Be a mechanic, but be a damn good one, who knows whats important. Work clean !!!-
Awhile back I spent the big bucks and bought the Mobil1 synthetic grease. With the exception of the red dye leaching out over time it works great. Now, I have a tip for you. I bought a pack of disposable syringes, variety pack. It came with some fine, plastic tip ones. I filled one with grease and use it to pack them bearings quickly. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to access sealed roller bearings to grease.
I clean them by putting them in a ziplock bag filled with isopropyl alcohol and drop that into an ultrasonic cleaner filled with water. It gets the bearings super clean because it releases dirt that’s trapped between the cage and the balls. After I take it out of the tank, I hold it by the inner race and blast it with the compressor. on a shallow angle The bearing will spin up to warp speed and will spin for a very long time on its own; that’s how you know it’s completely clean. I pack them with grease by pushing it into the bearing until it comes out the other side; then I spin the bearing several times before wiping off all the excess grease with my finger on both sides. As long as you have an air gap on both sides you won’t have any problems.
Great VJO! Didn’t know grease is more less oil with a clay like thickener. Note: regarding Carb cleaner, I think it is more like MEK methyl ethyl ketone . Acetone is( IMHO) a much less potent solvent. Just my understanding of things ( your actual mileage may vary…lol). BTW I saved this VJO to my how to folder has really great info, thank you for posting it!
How to clean and un-sieze a sealed bearing. 1 Remove bearing, 2 Discard and replace bearing. The whole idea of a sealed bearing is that they are sealed for life! Once they become siezed or rough running REPLACE them! theres no economy in re-greasing a sealed bearing once they’ve reached the end of their service life!
I encountered grease incompatibility in a rather stellar way. no idea now what happened, I had thought I had fully cleaned out the old before putting in the new but within a week the metal of the sleeve bearings and the metal of the shaft of the motor had both dissolved. When I took it apart to review and see if it could be repaired, there was a 1mm deep U shaped wear into the shaft and the bearing itself was soft and crumbly to the touch. Needless to say, not recoverable, but what ever the interaction had been it was very corrosive.