Grease leaking around buddy bearing

[skydiveD30571]

I have a 2007 tandem axle EZ-LUBE trailer. It had the original dust caps over the grease zirks. The rubber was cracked and water was intruding so I discard them a year ago and cleaned the bearings and hubs, repacked the bearings by hand, and put everything back together. With the grease zirk on the EZ-LUBE trailers, I pumped grease in until it became visible, then removed the grease zirk and put on new bearing buddys. I gave a couple pumps of grease into the bearing buddy until the spring began to move, then called it good. I've had no operational issues with the trailer but I'm trying to be preventative.

As you can tell in the pictures, grease has a tendency to escape around where the bearing buddy installs (red arrow of first picture). The rear driver's side is the worst one, the rear passenger and front driver look like the second picture with minimal grease leakage. The front passenger has zero leak around that area. All 4 of them tend to spit out grease on the face of the buddy bearing. Not sure if it is coming from the spring/seal, the relief port, or the zirk fitting.




Anybody else with buddy bearings have this problem? Is it a case of overgreasing? It was a pain to get them knocked in right, and they seem snug as all hell, so I really don't see them being the wrong size. They were bought at a local trailer parts store. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

I'm confuzzed. Do you have EZ Lube hubs? If so you don't need Bearing Buddies.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

Yes I have EZ lube hubs. The original dust caps were cracked and water was coming into the hubs freely and grease was escaping freely. To prevent this I thought I'd go the bearing buddy way.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

The rubber plugs are like 3.00 each. and EZ lube hubs are one of the best things to use. BB not so much and your are learning the hard way. Throw the BB away and fix the hubs. You wont regret it.

 

[saumon]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

You probably already busted your rear seals. Like said, throw the BB away and use the EZ-Lube as it should. Best thing since sliced bread.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

Why is it assumed I already blew the rear seals? I've never seen the consequences of that happening...is it pretty obvious?

 

[saumon]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

Why is it assumed I already blew the rear seals? I've never seen the consequences of that happening...is it pretty obvious?

In the EZ-Lube system, over grease is meant to escape toward the front. If you add a BB that seal the front of the spindle and add some more, the only place for grease to escape if it's already full is by the rear seal. Have a look at your hub, behind the rim. If there's grease on it, seal was busted.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

Makes sense thanks. I should have just replaced the rubber cap/plugs to prevent water intrusion and called it good. Ill look into switching back over

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

The EZ-Lube system works like this. Unless of course you like pulling the hubs to repack them. I havnt had a need to pull mine yet after 3 years but I have flushed the old grease out several times

 

[maproy99]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

Ez lube works well to lube the bearings but not for keeping water out. Buddy bearings will get your bearings full of grease over time as air works out but you can not add new grease to the bearings. The best way is having Ez lube, and use this only to flush the grease though the bearings and put the buddy bearing on to add pressure to the system to avoid water coming in. When you need to change the grease, remove the buddy bearing, do not wipe out, use the same type of grease, and run it through the ez lube. Wipe off the old grease, reinstall BB and add grease to pressurize it. This way you get the benefits of both.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

EZ lube works very fine about keeping water out.

 

[gm280]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

A little story that could point to your problem too. My neighbor wanted me to help him with his brakes on his two axle trailer he recently purchased used. He went and purchased two sets of bearing bubby type setups to install once we got the brakes fixed. His electric brakes were completely frozen up on three of the four wheels/hubs. So it took some time removing everything cleaning off the rust and rebuilding the entire setup. Then he wanted to install the BB’s. I tried everything I could to tap them on with zero results. Then I looked at the second BB still in the packaging and noticed it looked like it was used. There were marks on it like somebody else tried to install them and couldn’t get them to go on either. And after looking them over real good and measuring them, they looked a little egged shaped. Not real bad but enough to keep them from fitting correctly. Luckily the neighbor has a metal lathe and he installed them on his lathe and turned them round again removing a few thousands to make them round once more. They then taped on with a very snug fit. I stated all this to say maybe the leaking BB the OP has may be a little out of round and allowing the grease to seep out... Just an idea to check out.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

The good news is by adding those Bearing Buddies you created a lot of space for extra grease, so there's a chance you didn't blow the inner seals. The other good news is inner seals are cheap, so even if you did blow them you'll only be out a few bucks and some elbow grease (and a lot of hand cleaner). Go ahead and get some extra EZ Lube plugs while you're at it. Oh, and don't throw the Bearing Buddies away. You might find a use for them on another trailer one of these days.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

Ez lube works well to lube the bearings but not for keeping water out. Buddy bearings will get your bearings full of grease over time as air works out but you can not add new grease to the bearings. The best way is having Ez lube, and use this only to flush the grease though the bearings and put the buddy bearing on to add pressure to the system to avoid water coming in. When you need to change the grease, remove the buddy bearing, do not wipe out, use the same type of grease, and run it through the ez lube. Wipe off the old grease, reinstall BB and add grease to pressurize it. This way you get the benefits of both.

That was our thought process, and why we went this route. Since all four are leaking out the face of the buddy bearing also, is that a sign of too much grease which is building pressure as it liquifies? I knew it was common for people to overgrease with buddy bearings so I tried not to do that. I.E. maybe 2 or 3 pumps on the buddy bearing grease zirk.

If water can get past the rubber plug on the dust cap of the EZ-Lube system, what keeps it out of the bearings?

 

[Thalasso]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

If you don't let your bearings cool down after trailering no system will keep water out. The warm bearings and cool water will create a suction effect and bring water into the bearings.The BB will only grease the outer bearing for the most part. It (front bearing ) won't let enough grease by to get the inner brg, where as the EZ lube starts at the rear (were most failures occur) and goes forward.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

The nice thing about the EZ Lubes is you can force out water along with the old grease.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

So I think the best plan is to remove the bearing buddys and put the ez-lube dust caps back on with new rubber plugs. And check the rear seals in the process. I wonder how many times now I have tried "fixing" something that just results in putting it back the way it was!

With the normal ez-lube caps and rubber, do they normally throw grease at all? Mine threw a lot of it but the rubber was also broken open.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

Yes, once things heat up they can sling quite a bit of grease if the cut/split is big enough. Shouldn't sling any once you put in new plugs though.

 

[littlerayray]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

ive got the ez lubes and took the dust caps off this spring no grease stains
no nothing

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Grease leaking around buddy bearing

When the rubber plug / caps get to old and stiff to seal any more you will see a bit of grease sling at the front, the cure is to replace, I ran into this last years on my 1988 trailer and I am sure they were the originals, I changed them out and no more grease stains. Mine wasn't letting water in yet but if it lets grease out then water can get in. I can flush and repack both hubs in 15 minutes and it takes around 1/2 tube of grease per hub with out the need to take them apart like a standard hub or BB hubs.

BB have their place and uses, way back when, it was better than the old style metal caps on most boat trailers, but like a lot of things their time has past. The newer style hubs like the safety lube or the 90 weight gear oil hubs has vastly improved hub maintenance.

The mis-use of BB caps cause a lot seal failiers and road side break downs. Ever one has a lot opinions on hub maintenance, styles, and what type is best but the safety lube is considered one of the very best for very good reasons. The other style of hub is one filled with 90 weight gear oil and it also works very well, I haven't personally owned that type but those that do really like them.

Its a matter of choice, would you rather spend a Saturday tearing down hubs to repack by hand or spend 6 minutes per hub and then go for a boat ride.