Replacement Trailer Hub Bearing - L44643

Video Transcript for Repacking Trailer Bearings Demonstration

Today on This Old Trailer were going to show you how to repack the wheel bearings on a disc brake set-up. We have already gone ahead and removed our wheel and tire from the trailer. We began by removing the dust cap off the end of the axle. We will need to remove our caliper bracket. We will undo the two bolts here on the back side, where we can then undo the bracket and set it off to the side. We will also go ahead and remove the outside brake pad.

Now here in the center of the axle, where we removed the dust cap, we will need to clean the grease off so that we can see the cotter pin. We will then remove the cotter pin and the nut stop where we can now undo the nut with a pair of channel locks. This nut should not be very tight. After removing the nut, we can go ahead and pull the hub of our axle off. Now you will notice with the hub off that our spindle is exposed.

We can go ahead and clean the spindle off and make sure that its in good working order. We will make sure that it does not have any scratches or nicks in the seal surfaces as well as on the bearing surfaces. With that done we will move over here to our hub where we can remove the bearing from the outside. Now when removing the bearing we will also be pulling out the flat washer. We can go ahead and set them off to the side.

Leave the flat washer with the bearing just to indicate which side that bearing came from. We will now flip the hub over where you will notice there is a seal. This grease seal will need to be removed. Now when removing the seal you will probably damage it, but its a good idea to go ahead and replace them anyway. There are several ways to remove a grease seal. You can use a large screwdriver or pry bar.

You can use a seal remover tool or you can use a hammer and a punch. Now these seals are a tight fit so they will require some work to get them out. Once the seals removed we can go ahead and remove the bearing and set it off to the side. We will now clean all the grease out of our hub. We will be using Brake-Clean to help break down the grease so that we can remove it from the hub. We will also want to inspect the bearing races here and on the other side here. Again we will want to make sure that the races are in one piece without any cracks, chips, or scars in them. Now that we have confirmed our races are good, we will set our hub off to the side. We will now take the bearings and clean each individual bearing using Brake-Clean and some shop towels. We will go ahead and clean up the nut and the nut stop as well, getting as much of the old grease out of the way as possible. Now we have got both bearings, the flat washer, our nut, and nut stop all cleaned up. We have got our new seal. We will begin by repacking the wheel bearings. Now there are several ways to repack wheel bearings. We are going to go ahead and use a bearing repack tool, as this does seem to get the job done the best. Now to use a bearing repacker, we will go ahead and place the bearing into the tool and bring the cone down over the bearing. Well then apply pressure and allow the grease to come out the backside of the bearing. We can then remove the cone and the bearing and make sure that the grease surrounds all bearing surfaces. We can then drop it into our hub here on the backside. With that done were ready to install our new grease seal. We will place the seal into position and using a ball-peen hammer well lightly tap it into place. Now that the seal is in place well flip our hub over and repack the outside bearing and install it into the hub. With that done well take our hub assembly and slide it over the spindle of our axle into place. We can then install our flat washer and our nut using the channel locks to lightly snug the nut down. We will put the nut stop on and using a new cotter pin well slide it into place and bend it around. With that done we can reinstall our bearing cap dust cover. We will now reinstall our brake caliper. That will complete the process of repacking wheel bearings on a trailer with disc brakes.