Castle nut question

[Rinker85]

Do castle nuts need to be tightened after awhile? I noticed my port side tire wearing on the inside. The tires will be 4 years old this fall. I jacked the trailer up and was able to move the tire all over the place. I removed the cotter pin and was able to tighten the castle nut until there was no wobble. I didn't leave it like that though. I replaced the whole Hub assembly. A side note, back in the early 90's I blew out a bearing on the port side. It created a small flat spot on the spindle. I'm thinking that spot is eating up my bearings every couple of years. Or am I suppose to tighten the castle nut?

 

[superbenk]

Agreed that you’re probably chewing up bearings. Castle but shouldn’t need to be tightened I wouldn’t think. Do you repack your bearings regularly (every couple years)? I know they make sleeves for worn spindles which might fix your issue with the races.

 

[dingbat]

Sounds like you didn’t follow wheel bearing installation procedure.

The bearing should be greased before installation.

The nut should be torqued to x foot pounds (depends on bearing size and type) and the wheel spun a number of times to seat the bearing.

Then back the nut off an 1/8-1/4 turn before inserting pin.

The flat spot on the spindle has no affect on the life of your bearings.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I'm thinking that spot is eating up my bearings every couple of years.

please list your complete bearing service procedure. I believe you are missing something

 

[ahicks]

In many many years of packing wheel bearings, on everything including light aircraft, I have never put a torque wrench on a castle nut. You snug it lightly using pliers (using one hand) and back it off to the next hole available that will allow you to insert the cotter pin. This fully seats the bearings (squishes the grease out of the way), and results in what might be just the slightest amount of bearing preload to pretty much eliminate slop.

When you lift a wheel up off the ground and give it the wiggle test, and find that it will wiggle, you've located a set of bearings screaming for a cleaning, close inspection, and a re-pack at minimum.

To tighten that set of bearings, and put them back into service with no further action, would be taking a walk into pretty dangerous territory.

 

[dingbat]

https://www.carid.com/images/timken/driveline-axles/pdf/wheel-bearing-installation-instructions.pdf

 

[bruceb58]

Yep, I use a torque wrench as well when I set the bearings. Not that hard to do it the proper way.

 

[Rinker85]

Agreed that you’re probably chewing up bearings. Castle but shouldn’t need to be tightened I wouldn’t think. Do you repack your bearings regularly (every couple years)? I know they make sleeves for worn spindles which might fix your issue with the races.

Unfortunately I was not repacking every couple of years. I was using bearing buddies. Up until a couple of days ago. After replacing the entire hub assembly on the port side, I bought new bearings and a new seal for the Starboard side and I did follow instructions on packing them. No more bearing buddies for me. I was blowing out the rear seals. So now I have started fresh and entering the job I did in my maintenance log so I can keep track. One question though, I tightened the castle nut to torque specs and then backed off a little until the tire turned without any resistance. But then I am still able to wobble the tire. So I tightened the castle nut until no more wobble. The tire turns but there is a little resistance and that worry's me.

 

[bruceb58]

Unfortunately I was not repacking every couple of years. I was using bearing buddies. Up until a couple of days ago. After replacing the entire hub assembly on the port side, I bought new bearings and a new seal for the Starboard side and I did follow instructions on packing them. No more bearing buddies for me. I was blowing out the rear seals. So now I have started fresh and entering the job I did in my maintenance log so I can keep track. One question though, I tightened the castle nut to torque specs and then backed off a little until the tire turned without any resistance. But then I am still able to wobble the tire. So I tightened the castle nut until no more wobble. The tire turns but there is a little resistance and that worry's me.

You tighten the castle nut only finger tight, after going through the seating procedure with a torque wrench, and loosen it to where you can put the cotter pin in.

BTW, with Bearing Buddys, you still have to pack the bearings. The only purpose of the Bearing Buddy is to provide pressure in the hub. You typically only need to fill the grease through the Bearing buddy once after you pack your bearings and pound on the Bearing Buddy. You pump until the piston just starts to move and that's it.If you are adding grease after that, that is why you blew your rear seal. I see people recommending putting in a squirt of grease every once and awhile. These are the people that blow their seals. The grease is not going anywhere which is why you never really need to add any.

Personally, I like Bearing Buddys and hate EZ-Lube hubs. Two of my trailers have EZ-Lube and I will never use it because you CAN blow the seals using those. I just hand pack and that's it on those.