The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Wheel Hub Grease Dish

Can anyone help me on how this grease tray gets installed back on to the spindle/backing plate. I am changing to modern roller bearings from 2 piece original wheel bearings. The grease dish keeps the throw off of any grease that may leak through the grease seal off the backing plate and brakes as I understand it. The pictures indicate the dish does not fit over the lip at the rear of the spindle at or near the backing plate. The grease dish does not fit tightly on the hub and the hub rotates and the grease dish is loose around the hub. Do I use a type of liquid weld or glue to hold the grease dish in place on to the backing plate? When I took it apart I used a small tool to extract it from the backing plate and slide it off the spindle, now it doesn't fit tightly onto the backing plate or the spindle, can anyone offer me any knowledge on what to do? Do I simply just leave it off and check the brakes every so often or do they need to go back on? I don't want small pieces of ground metal getting into the bearings if it rotates while driving and I don't want the noise or squeaking going down the road either.
Help? Wheel Grease Dish Photos

Don't worry about it. The slight amount of preload from adjusting the bearing correctly will hold the grease disc, and the inner bearing race reasonably still. It definitely won't rotate anywhere near wheel speed if it moves at all. If you're going to get all OCD about it, get the spindle and the disc super clean with spray brake cleaner, and stick the disc on with a few drops of super glue. It's totally unnecessary to do that, however, at least for the 50+ years I've been tinkering with these old rigs!
Jerry

Always happy to see your answers Jerry, 50+ years is pretty darn good enough for me! Thanks.

Preload is tight and back off one castle hole in the castle nut and grab the tire on the top and bottom and make sure there is some slight movement there correct? If not back off one more castle to make sure the bearings don't bind?

Are we talking about ball bearings or roller bearings here? You've got the procedure right for ball bearings, snug the nut, spin the wheel, then back off about one slot on the castle nut. I don't really like to see any noticeable play or wobble, but a little is OK. On tapered roller bearings, snug the nut firmly, spin the wheel, then back off until the nut turns free. THEN, tighten the nut slightly, maybe 12-15 inch/lbs. Hopefully, a cotter pin hole will line up, since most spindles for roller bearings have two holes in them 90 degrees apart. Roller bearings work much better when they're slightly pre-loaded, especially if disc brakes are involved. I've cured problems with brake shudder and wheel shimmy on roller-bearing front wheels by simply increasing the preload a little.
Jerry

I am converting from original ball bearings to tapered roller bearings. From the adjustment procedure you spelled out I assume I should not expect to find any slight wobble. Thank you for your help.

UPDATE;
Well , I cleaned everything up, I actually did the OCD thing and put some glue on the grease discs. I packed the bearings and was on my way to taking a ride this afternoon... BUT.. the new bearings get to the part of the spindle where the taper stops and the bearing slides on and it binds there, both sides. I guess these Chinese replacement bearings are off a few thousands. SO? Where do I go from here? Any suggestions? If I use emery cloth then there is no way I can get the spindle exactly true. Do I return the bearings and wait for the backordered ones? I am not sure where they come from but virtually every vendor has them on back order. I found these in Los Angeles from ABS Power Brakes. Does anyone have the NAPA bearing numbers to fit my 53 3100 1/2 front hubs? I hate it when things don't go right. (I did a good job of packing the bearings also and was quite happy with the job I did today, things were running too smooth)

I love working on my Stovebolt, I love working on my Stovebolt.
Honest...Thanks John

John, the number on the front bearings on my 52 half ton is 909702. The Federal cross reference is F-002. Hope that helps.

John, The #s I gave you are the std ball bearings...not rollers

Thanks ADspudnut, I want to convert to rollers. Maybe I'll take the numbers to NAPA and see if the can cross them over to rollers.

OK. I worked on it about 60 minutes with differing grit of sandpaper and emery cloth. The bearing is going on further and further, I don't think I will have to worry about it mounting at a slight angle because it is so tight on the spindle. I will keep going until I can get the bearing to bottom out at the backing plate. If a few thousands meant that much they would have made the spindles out of stronger steel I guess. Thanks I will keep it up until it fits. I put a very light coating of grease on the spindle and the bearing goes 50% further after only an hour of sanding. Most likely another hour working the back half of the spindle and I will be able to get the bearing on. Then 2 hours on the other side. The only thing that I see when I pick it up everytime is the CHINA stamp on the bearing. So much for keeping it as close to stock as I could. Boy that annoys me for some reason. Thanks all. Thread closed.

Question- - - - -does the spindle have a raised shoulder for the grease seal to ride on? Some of the ball bearing inner races had an extended shoulder that formed the sealing surface. I've seen some bearing conversion jobs that needed to have a spacer machined to fit behind the inner bearing to give the seal a working surface. The spacer rings aren't difficult to machine, just a couple of diameter cuts and a 45 degree chamfer to clear the radius where the spindle ends.
Jerry

The roller bearing has an extended shoulder that when I put the hub together, placing the bearing into the race and then installing the seal the seal had good tight contact with the inner bearing race. Did I explain that correctly or should I post a picture to make it clearer? So when you look at the assembled hub the center has an extended shoulder that sticks out of the center of the bearing and bottoms out at the backing plate and the grease disc once I get it sanded down. Now I understand what you were saying with preload the grease disc would not move.

Thanks for your help Jerry.

You've got things covered very well. The spacer just allows the use of a very much less-expensive roller bearing. The spacer is installed onto the spindle with a little red LocTite and becomes a semi-permanent part of the spindle assembly. I've done several conversions that way, but it's been a while, so I'd have to do some research on which part number bearing cone to use with the spacers.
Jerry

I am not sure if these numbers will help you Jerry as the is no manufacturer mark on them. There is only a stamp CHINA. URRRG!

Inner larger bearing with the built in inner shoulder 909052R

Outer smaller bearing 909067R
The races are installed and I didn't think to get the numbers off of them. Sorry



Hope someone can cross those over and it may help someone else.