Wheel bearing grease covering wheels

[BC0979]

I have only 95 hrs on my Savannah S now and I have had to clean the wheels of greesy dirt. It appears that the bearing grease caps do not seal, so grease comes out on both sides of all three wheels.

The caps are just thin metal caps without any rubber seal.

Are you having the same issue or did I not install them correctly?

 

Thank you in advance for your response!

[Moneybox]

What type of bearings do you have?

My Sportstar has pre-packed sealed bearings that are never likely to leak unless badly worn out.

 

If you have bearings, tapered rollers or ball bearings that you must pack with grease then the correct method is to use grease sparingly. You pack the bearing itself but not the hub that it's inserted into. This allows a lot of air space between bearings where any spare grease can go. If you completely fill the hub with grease it will always leak. Bearings only need a small amount of grease to operate for the period between major services. You should use wheel bearing grease.

[onetrack]

The grease caps are not designed to keep grease in, they are there to keep dirt, dust and moisture out of the bearings. If the wheel hub is overfilled with grease, it will leak out and spread across the wheels.

The simple solution is to take the hubs off, clean out the excess amounts of grease, and reinstall the hubs and bearings with just the bearing cups and cones containing grease.

As Moneybox says, the centre hollow section of the hub does not need to be filled with grease, it is only hollow to save a lot of unnecessary weight in the hub casting.

[BC0979]

I have the tapered roller bearings in all wheels.

I hand packed them throughly then

I did add alot of extra grease into the hubs which is what the both of you have stated not to do....

 

Thanks for the replies 

[facthunter]

Just use  double sealed Ball Bearings. Aero wheels spin at High revs some times and  grease is Just Oil Mixed with a stearate (Usually Lithium) SOAP. For heavier work you can't beat Tapered rollers (properly sealed). Nev

[onetrack]

Facthunters advice is good. Ball bearings are designed for light loads, taper roller bearings are designed to carry heavier loads, and to last longer. The early automotive wheel bearings were simple ball bearings, but the manufacturers gradually found taper roller bearings provided better service under a much wider range of road conditions, and wide variations in loading. In addition, taper roller bearings became cheaper as manufacturing methods improved, and sales levels increased.

 

However, in recent years, the light vehicle manufacturers have returned to using sealed ball bearings in a move designed to reduce friction losses, and to improve fuel economy figures.

As aircraft wheel use is designated light duty, intermittent use, sealed ball bearings in the wheel hubs would be a completely satisfactory alternative to taper roller bearings.