KodiakOilLubeKit,Now have alum flakes in wheel bearings did it ruin my bearings

elkhunter338

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 27, 2009
Messages
818
I installed new axles and installed oil lube kits from Kodiak, all new bearings, seals the works.
After a 5 mile test tow I noticed the oil looked bad, what I found was metal flakes. Tested with magnet and they are not steel. They are alum from the oil lube kit.
The alum housing that drives onto the hub hit the washer that goes on before the nut and cotter pin.
The washers came with the axles where just larger than the inside of the oil lube housing. So now I have alum flakes throughout my new bearings.

Will this alum ruin my wheel bearings?

I think I will be ok if I just flush as much out as I can. The reason I believe this is because alum is softer than steel. Also as a kid I had a honda motor cycle that the timing chain wore into the alum cylinder cavity where the timing chain ran. So this put lots of alum in the engine oil. I jb welded the hole closed, fixed timing chain and ran the motor cycle for along time until I sold it with no engine failure.
 

smokeonthewater

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
9,838
Re: KodiakOilLubeKit,Now have alum flakes in wheel bearings did it ruin my bearings

Sorry NO replace the bearings...
 

elkhunter338

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 27, 2009
Messages
818
Re: KodiakOilLubeKit,Now have alum flakes in wheel bearings did it ruin my bearings

To all who read this thread I found out the whole problem. Kodiak was very helpful.
The axle with the Kodiak discbrake hubs are cad coated. The metal in these 2 hubs was flakes from the cad coating which is normal and Kodiak says is a OK.

The idler hubs (did not come from Kodiak, generic idler hubs) where just as I explained above, these had alum. in the oil. Well I pulled a front bearing out of the hub and inspected. Bearing looks new, no damage from the alum. I flushed out the old oil using the center hole in the axle pumping outdrive oil through the hub. I made the washer slightly smaller and fixed the issue.
I bet everything would have ran fine if I had been so observant to see the oil was discolored.
 
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