New Grease Seal Leaked After Installation of Bearing Buddies with Hub Kit # 8-248-50UC1

Question:

Well I ordered the 2000lb hub kit 4 on 5 with the 2 L44649 bearings. I greased the bearings, installed the seal flush to the hub, put the hub on the shaft, installed the outer bearing and washer/ nut. Put the bearing buddie on and greased it up spinning the wheel.... Now the grease is coming out the back.... I may have over filled it.... The new grease seal is not in the same place on the shaft as the old one, I can see the shaft shine. I mesured the shine spot, 1.3 095... The kit came with 1.5 seals. So what should I do? Please help!!!!! Thanks

asked by: Steve M

Expert Reply:

Thank you for your recent purchase from etrailer.

The grease seal included with this hub kit has an inner diameter of 1.500-inches and an outer diameter of 1.987-inches. This seal should be fully seated into the rear bore of the hub so that it is flush with the back hub surface.

The grease seal leak you experienced could come from the seal not being fully seated into the hub, or it could, as you noted, be a result of the over-filling of your Bearing Buddies. If this hub does not have the correct bearings/seals for your spindles, that could be the issue.

It is not unusual for a new Bearing Buddy installation to result in overfilling! There seems to be a natural tendency among us - all of us, including me - to figure "if some is good, more must be better". That is true with fried fish but not with grease in a trailer hub - which is particularly easy to over-apply when you are using a zerk grease gun rather than packing your bearings by hand.

I suggest you use a double-lip seal as a replacement, part # RG06-020, which is a set of two. These double-lip seals will still require care when filling your hubs with grease but they will be less likely to get blown out by overfilling. Part # BB60001 is a seal set with inner diameter of 1.375 and an outer diameter of 1.980.

expert reply by: Adam R