Grease fling onto rims

[FrancoCialone]

Mercury 2-4-C grease is not the best grease for wheel bearings, the best thing to do is have both hubs overhauled, check the bearings, replace the grease seals, spindle wear sleeves (if required) and use a proper grease like Lucas Marine grease or Lubrimatic Marine trailer wheel Bearing grease, both are Calcium Sulfonate based. Over greasing your hubs is how grease seals are ruined and allow water to penetrate the hub. I just give the grease gun 1-2 pumps to move the plunger out about 1/8 of an inch, once or twice a year.

[Bigbassfish]

Okay… if I’m going to tackle overhaul myself, is it simply a matter of disassembling the Hubs, replacing worn parts, and regreasing with something other than 2-4c maybe? Do I need to completely clean the old grease off with a degreaser of sorts, or could I just wipe off and clean up the majority, and then refill with something else. I will probably try the Lucas marine grease as it’s available to me locally. As long as it’s the lithium base Lucas, it should be compatible with the 2-4C correct? I would think as long as they are both lithium base, there shouldn’t be an issue with mixing.

[Bigbassfish]

Out of curiosity, what is the mechanism that causes over greasing to ruin a seal? Is it simply an over pressure sort of thing?

[RazorCat]

If they’re slinging grease the seals are blown.
Install a new seal, clean/pack/reinstall old bearings and races, or install new bearings and races. Hand pack them, tighten spindle bolt and bearing buddy. Use to grease gun to pump up the bearing buddy until the Full indicator mark shows.
NEVER, EVER, EVER pump more grease into the hub. If grease isn’t leaking out the seals, there’s no reason to pump more in.

[SoonerFan]

Okay… if I’m going to tackle overhaul myself, is it simply a matter of disassembling the Hubs, replacing worn parts, and regreasing with something other than 2-4c maybe? Do I need to completely clean the old grease off with a degreaser of sorts, or could I just wipe off and clean up the majority, and then refill with something else. I will probably try the Lucas marine grease as it’s available to me locally. As long as it’s the lithium base Lucas, it should be compatible with the 2-4C correct? I would think as long as they are both lithium base, there shouldn’t be an issue with mixing.

If it were mine I would put new bearing and races in. Those bearings have been running for a long time in who knows what kind of grease. I buy Timken bearings from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1.....For each hub one each of L44649 & L68149 bearings and L44610 L68111 races. I'm not saying that this is for sure the sizes you need but it sounds like you have the same hub as I do so this will lead you in the right direction. You'll need to rent a bearing race tool from the parts store. You knock the bearing races out with a brass punch...not hard to do and then re-set them with the race tool. There are all sorts of helpers to pack the bearings but the good old packing the grease in by hand is still the most effective. Every time I use the bearing packing tool, I still finish it up by hand. Lucas Marine or Citco marine grease are the best IMHO. You'll need the proper inner seals....I think that's been discussed.... some new cotter pins of the correct size.

Just wipe out all the old grease inside the hub with paper towels. I used a whole roll the other day when I did this job.

Out of curiosity, what is the mechanism that causes over greasing to ruin a seal? Is it simply an over pressure sort of thing?

Pumping an over load of grease in the zerk and putting too much pressure on the inner seal. It's only pressed in and hydraulic pressure will pop it.....I'VE DONE IT.


It's not a difficult job. I figured it out pretty much on my own about 20 years ago and doing it regularly since. Youtube and BBC will hold your hand if you have questions. PM me, I'm more than happy to offer my advice.

[billnorman1]

This is a good thread to include my little bit of knowledge. I think you are supposed to rotate the wheel while you add grease under pressure.

[SoonerFan]

This is a good thread to include my little bit of knowledge. I think you are supposed to rotate the wheel while you add grease under pressure.

Yes, that's right. Many details I missed, like making sure races and seal are on squarely and all the way....I hand tighten the king nut and give it just a light tighten to mate the bearings to the race and then back off by hand and then hand tighten. I think everyone has their own way of doing that. Torque the lug nuts to 90 ft.lb. some say 100. Little things like that that you just pick up on.

I suppose a shop would charge $300..$400 and keep the boat for a week to do what I did in my garage in a couple of hours.

[FrancoCialone]

Mercury 2-4-C grease is not the best grease for wheel bearings, the best thing to do is have both hubs overhauled, check the bearings, replace the grease seals, spindle wear sleeves (if required) and use a proper grease like Lucas Marine grease or Lubrimatic Marine trailer wheel Bearing grease, both are Calcium Sulfonate based. Over greasing your hubs is how grease seals are ruined and allow water to penetrate the hub. I just give the grease gun 1-2 pumps to move the plunger out about 1/8 of an inch, once or twice a year.

BTW if you need new bearings, races and seals, use Timkin or SK, don't buy cheap Made in China parts ! And never mix different types of grease, stick to the same type.

[Superpro]

Likely overfilled and now the grease is being pushed back out .

I too never understood why people would keep adding grease if there is no visible leakage

[CJ1]

This is a good thread to include my little bit of knowledge. I think you are supposed to rotate the wheel while you add grease under pressure.

And don't do it with a cold hub. Some axles introduce grease between the back seal and the bearing, if you use heavy grease like I do and grease the hub when it is cold it will blow the seal out. Doesn't matter if you spin it or not. A grease gun can develop over 5k of pressure so use caution. I always use the spring loaded easy lube hubs with the indicators. The only time I add grease is when the hub indicates it needs it to replace any air that escaped or I have a seal issue. On all of my trailers they get torn apart, inspected and seals replaced usually with pinion seals if I can find a seal that fits. I have never had a bearing fail on the road and 1 or 2 that got water past the seal and pitted the bearing but you can feel that when you inspect them before use. I have either fixed or replaced a few hubs or axles that were neglected. Costly for the little bit of preventative time. CJ