Re: Bearing buddies leaking grease ??
I can tell you from my experience that its very easy to overfill Bearing Buddies. I bought a trailer that had new bearings and Bearing Buddies a few years ago. Having never used them before I thought they'd be like added insurance. After a long road trip I checked the buddies and found that there was no movement in the spring at all. So, according to the instructions I filled them with grease until the spring began to move. Unfortunately, for me it seems the rear seal blows out at a lower psi than the Bearing Buddy spring moves. I ended up overfilling the axle and blew out the rear seal after my first trip. It was a hard lesson. I would have been better off leaving them the heck alone.
pecheux, the blue/green grease is water resistant axle grease like the Canadian Tire store brand.
You shouldn't be able to blow a grease seal with the bearing buddy. The spring tension isn't that high. However, I've seen many scarred sealing surfaces, and also a few that were quite a bit undersized, and not able to hold pressure.
Bearing buddy markets seal kits that have a stainless steel seal surface that fits over the original, and is sealed to the hub by an o-ring between the new seal ring and the inside bearing. A high quality neoprene seal completes the application. It's great.
When you first install a bearing buddy, there will be some air in the hub. It'll burp out as you roll, so you might have to add a squirt of grease both at the loanding, and at home for a few trips. Eventually it'll fill up and you can leave the grease gun home.
The only other thing I've found is that they can shake off on bad (washboard) roads. I wipe the hub as clean as I can and install them with a coat of locktite sleeve retainer. It takes heat to remove them, so a repack has to be done orthoscopically through the bearing buddy, or you have to heat it to remove it, and then replace the o-ring on the diaphragm. Neither scenario is a big deal.
hope it helps
John
