bgoetz

I read one other person suggesting to repack bearings with more/better grease. I have read a lot of other racing forums where other guys do this with all types of bearings. I just could not find anything specific to OUR bearings saying that this was either a good idea or a bad idea. I did it to some rear bearings this past weekend and they came apart/went back together fine (repacked with Redline grease). Although I never paid attention to if the races are side specific, which lead me to search and realize this issue has not been discussed. As a note I did confirm by calling Timken that they are NOT side specific.

So now I just realized the fronts need done and am just doing all 4, so I was curious as to if anyone had any thoughts on this practice? If it is a bad idea or questionable I may skip doing it on the fronts (I really don't want to have do do all 4 again if it causes failure). If it is a good idea like other car forums suggest, then maybe I want to do the fronts too. Or if there is debate maybe I won't do them and we can see how they wear compared to the rears Asa cool experiment!

Slowcrash_101

Our wheel bearings are sealed, no packing needed :thumbsup:

bgoetz

They are sealed, but they easily pop apart and really have minimal grease. I did it and it went back together with zero issues, pressed right on perfectly. I just have not put the knuckle back on yet.

Searching through race forums there are people who go to great lengths to put their own grease in bearings even more sealed than ours, some even removing the cage and everything, indicating a significant increase in life of the bearing. I read reference to it in a thread that prompted me to give it a try, now I wonder if I am the only one, lol

bgoetz

No I didn't reuse the bearings and I would certainly advise against that. What I did was cleaned the very minimal low quality grease from the new bearing and put in more high quality grease. Popped the bearing back together and installed. It seems this is a fairly common practice in the racing scene/other car forums.

Slowcrash_101

Interesting, I've never even considered doing that, what grease did you use if you don't mind me asking?

bgoetz

Redline red Molly. It seems like a fairly common practice other places, but like I said the lack of no one else doing it on our cars concerns me a little. That said a bearing is not complicated and it comes apart with next to no force from your hands.

Billman250

135k miles, tracking with slicks, all original bearings.

Factory grease goes the distance don't worry.

bgoetz

I actually had 135k on the ones I am changing. I decided to go with Timken bearings and see how they were, which is kinda why I re packed them.

s2000ellier

how much oem grease did you remove from the timken bearing?

how much redline molly did you put in?

bgoetz

I removed all of the grease which was not much. I put enough redline in that it squeezed out when reassembling the bearing and even more when pressing.

I may just leave the fronts go and see if I notice a difference in wear, although it may be a long term experiment