EZ Lube metal caps disappearing

[bassboat1]

Showed up at the Lake on Saturday and saw I was missing the portside cap. Replaced it at the ramp, and it was gone when I got home. Checked bearings Sunday morning and replaced the emulsified grease. Cleaned the face and inner bore, and gave it a final wipe with acetone before bedding a new cap in red Loctite. It made the roundtrip to another Lake on Sunday, so my fingers are crossed.

[DaveBrabec]

Probably heating up. Pops cap off.

[SoonerFan]

I had the same problem last week. I had bought new caps the last time I repacked the bearings. One of the new caps got crimped while I was trying to hammer it in so I used the old one. I could tell it was going on too easily. I tried stretching it out by tapping it down on my hitch ball and that seemed to make it fit tighter. Second trip to the lake I take a look at it and sure enough it had fallen off but was retained by the plastic decorative lug nut cover, which was destroyed by the cap banging around inside. I could tell it was too loose to stay on so when I finished with fishing I drove around the small town near the lake, hoping to find some RTV of some sort of adhesive to hold the gd thing on until I got home but nothing was open. When I got home, cap was gone. Ordered some more from Amazon. The new one went on with considerable effort, so much so that I believe it will stay this time.

[lmoore]

I always use Red RTV around the surface of the cap before installing. Helps hold them and seal out any water from defects. Also jack up and check for excess wobble, a wheel with too much play in the bearings can toss a cap off pretty quickly.

[RoadrashPaul]

I always use Red RTV around the surface of the cap before installing. Helps hold them and seal out any water from defects. Also jack up and check for excess wobble, a wheel with too much play in the bearings can toss a cap off pretty quickly.

Had this issue and asked the same question a month or so ago. Loose bearings turned out to be my cause for losing the caps.

[Kingfish3000]

You should probably pull the wheel and hub to check the bearings.

You could test drive it first and use an IR thermometer to check the heat on the hubs and see if that one is detectably hotter than the other(s) and go form there.

[bassboat1]

You should probably pull the wheel and hub to check the bearings.

You could test drive it first and use an IR thermometer to check the heat on the hubs and see if that one is detectably hotter than the other(s) and go form there.

Yeah, I jacked it up and checked both sides for play. I've kept an IR thermo in the console for years for just this purpose.