7t9l82

i have been searching and have found no easy way to lubricate the rear wheel bearings. it seems to be almost as easy to install a complete trailing arm. anyone have a way to do this?

wombvette

There is no easy way.

427Hotrod

Ditto. They make those lube thingy's...but by the time you get them in there, you're 75% finished with disassembly.

JIM

Mike Ward

I can think of lots of very bad ways.

Tom454

The first set of rear bearings I replaced was in 1976... and I figured... if some grease is good, then more grease must be better. So I filled the entire bearing cavity in the spindle support to 100%. Drove it around town... worked great. But when I took it on the highway... and the bearings & grease heated up... the grease expanded and came out past the outer grease seal... and the grease oozed out all over the new SS parking brake shoes... ruined them. I had to take it all apart and repack the grease only to about 80%. Moral of the story...don't invest in those greasing tools that force grease through the spindle support from the inner to outer bearing. It just fills up the cavity to 100%. The assembly's have to be taken apart to do the job right.

rogman16

Ouch!! Would not be very happy with that...

Mike Ward

This is one of the bad ways I was thinking of. Even 80% is overkill. The bearings need to come apart every ~40K miles to be cleaned, re-greased and reassembled properly.

It's not fun being passed by your own wheel on the highway.

jb78L-82

I know that the correct way to grease the rear bearings is through disassembly but in the late 80's I did regrease them using the bearing grease tool from midamerica by removing the half shafts on either side of the differential at 40,000 miles. Have not touched them since with 65,000 miles on the bearings with zero play so far and no noises. So far so good!

69 Chevy

And so did I, jb78L-82. I did mine at ~55,000 miles. But just a few pumps, not half a tube. So far, so good with 64.6K on the odo. I thought that $15 greaser tool was worth it for peace of mind alone.

RobbSalzmann

Now that's what I call wisdom!

IMHO if you're in a position to regrease'm, it's only a couple more steps to replace them. Considering how cheap bearings are compared to what they actually do, I think I'd opt for new even at the 40k intervals. (It'll take me about 20 years to put that many miles on it tho)

63split63

This is IMO the a pain in the +++ job. When I did mine I had the spindles machined so the bearings are a slip fit . It makes the job easy enough to do every couple of years . KISS for me .
Bill

7t9l82

if i remember correctly there are a couple special tools needed to just take them apart and then there is the adjustment for runout with shims etc just seems like alot of work.

wombvette

I wondered how long it would take for this to come up. That is on the short list of bad ways. Easy way to loose a wheel though.

Mike Ward

If some one wants me to post the the technical papers issued by GM in JUne of '63 that specifies exactly why they stopped using a slip fit on Corvette and went to a snap fit, speak up. It's an interesting read.

I can't believe how many people will drop 10K plus into an engine, not to mention exotic boo-teek oil to 'protect' it but will cheap out over wheel bearing maintenance that needs to be done at 40K mile intervals.

7t9l82

i am not trying to cheap out on a repair. i remember needing specialized tools to disassemble and reassemble . the only Corvette shop in town recommends new trailing arms to deal with greasing the bearings! its either stupidity or incompetence and they wont touch my car after an answer like that.so far we don't have an answer to how just about what.

sstopczy

Please do post, I am interested in reading them.

Mike Ward

The 'how' is quite clear- there is no quick and dirty way to lubricate them. Blindly pumping in more grease in on top of the old is pure Bubba. There is no method that will clean out the old grease on both bearings and replace it with new aside from complete disassembly. If your local shop is unable or unwilling to so this job, find somebody else. It's not rocket science. Are you sure your shop has not determined that your arms are not also deteriorated in other areas and are simply stopping you from throwing good money after bad?

I'll create a new post.

6inarow

I dont have my AIM yet or the chassis service manual, but from the discussion it seems that the bearings must be located in the trailing arms and that the arms must be disassembled with specialized tools?? Correct?

If that is the case, how does the hobbiest/home mechanic replace or repack the bearings?

wombvette

No really expensive tools are actually needed. You can get the axles out with the knocker tool that is sold through the parts outlets. You can separate and remove the bearing with a large sharpened chisel. You can set the bearings up with a large bolt and washers. You can either use feel or a cheap harbor freight dial indicator to set the clearance. You can reassemble with a flat punch and a friend to hold the axle while you seat the bearing. You don't really need a torque wrench 100# is about all you can pull anyway. So there, done with a very few cheap specialty tools.

Tom454

Thanks. You saved me some typing!