Greasing wheel bearings on a 4104. Can I just squeeze some grease in there ?

[Charles in SC]

Another thing that has not been mentioned is, do you have a busnut friend that you trust to make this kind of decision with you? You might take them with you to help you make your call.

[Barn Owl]

When I bought my bus I didn't know about greased rear axle bearings. It had sat for 10yrs and my parents drove it ~3000 miles before they got it to my house. I have taken it on several trips without a problem this year but I am going to repack the rear bearings over the winter. Just drive down the road a mile or two and check the temperature of the wheel bearings. If they are normal, go ten or twenty, and check again. If all is OK then drive it home and service them at you convenience over the winter. My front bearings are oil bath so they were easy to check.

Good luck and have fun,

Laryn

[JohnEd]

Many years ago I was driving through S.D. at night in late Oct.  I was driving my Winnie S&S Bago.  That old girl was pulled along by the famous Dodge 440 and she gave me 9 mpg once and I got 8 very often.  Great old girl, Wendy.  To get that kind of milage I had to pay a lot of attn to my vac gauge and I knew to the pound what she should be doing in different circumstances.  That night I noted that she was a pound to a pound and a half low on vac.  I checked my level gauge bubble and it said level ground and that meant the vac was really off a tad.  I pulled over in the middle of nowhere and walked around the girl feeling my rims for heat to see if I had a brake drum dragging.  At the right rear I noticed some heat but it wasn't the drum or rim so much as it was the HUB.  I thought "BEARING" and then drove at 25 mph till I got to Souix City(I think).  The shop confirmed that I had a bad bearing and the mgr. said that was the first time he had ever seen anybody "catch it" and niot lunch the entire thing before stopping.

Get one of those ir point and shoot temp gauges and find out how much the hub should run over ambient and if you find an axel warming up you can bet some maint is in order at the very first opportunity.  Gotta get the right numbers for a normal wheel first.  I have found a lot of uses for the thermo.

If it were me I would drive it a few miles and check for heat.  Then a while on the freeway and check for heat....you get it.

Good luck,

John

[zubzub]

Thanks, this is the 2nd post with the suggestion of checking for heat. makes sense to me.  A simple not fool proof plan that will alow me to do the bearings when I get home.  Patrick.

[JackConrad]

A couple tips when using a IR temp gun.  Get the gun within a few inches of the hub to be sure you are reading only the hub. Other factors can affect the readings you get.  If you are going north at 3 PM on a hot sunny day, the left hub reading will probably be a little hotter than the right.  Heavy stop & go traffic will cause an increase in hub temps as the heat from the brakes transfers into the hubs.  Jack