Re: lossing Hub Protectors? Help!
RC,<br /><br />I know exactly what you mean. A couple of years ago I was dunking the boat for the first time of the year, and that meant about a 15 mile tow from my house to a local lake. I had done my spring bearing repacking and had put new bearing buddys on each of the 4 hubs before the first trip of the year. When I got to within about a mile of the lake I stopped for gas and checked the hubs, like I do at all stops, for heat. One was missing its bearing buddy but hadn't slung much grease yet. I had a spare and knocked it in. We ran the boat and then later in the day were bringing it home. I pulled into the same station to check the wheels before we got in the interstate and the same wheel was missing its protector, the second one for the day. So I broke out a second spare and knocked it on. On the way home, about 5 miles from our house I stopped at a store and while we were theire I did my every-stop-walk-around, and you know what I found. The same wheel was missing its cap again. Back to the truck's tools box and this time I pulled out a stock stampted steel dust cap. I knocked it on and went on home. I check everything on that wheel, the nut tightness, the length of the cotter pin (one side trimmed and the other side neatly folded over), the hub for cracks or any thing to indicate that the receiving surface had been harmed. Nothing. In fact when I got to the house I had trouble getting the grease cap off. Anyway I put another bearing buddy in the hole and it stayed for the rest of the year. Go figgure?<br /><br />I have had exactly four bearing failures while on the road in my life. Three of those were on the same day, but each in a different state (NC, VA, and MD). I call it my day from hell. After the second breakdown the hub had been damaged in that the axle nut had gouged out the hole that accepted the bearing-buddy/greas cap. It was worn just large enough that you could push the cap on or pull it off by hand. By that time there was nowhere to get a new hub (this happend on a saturday) so I taped a stock grease cap into place. I used duct tape. It worked so well that for the next couple of years I always taped the hub/greascap after doing my regular maintainence repacking. I used both electric and duct tape. For whatever its worth the duct tape seemed to hold up a bit better and was less noticable. Anyway you are absolutly right, taping them does in fact work. I expect that if you were to dig around any any of our vehicles you'll find a roll of electrical tape and a roll of duct tape in each. Good stuff.<br /><br />As for the reasons you loose a cap I'll tell you some of the more plausable ones I've heard. The first is the cotter pin. Some folks will tell you that if you don't cut it off short after you bend up one leg and cut the other leg completely off the cap will come loose. I'm not sure what their reasoning is, as long as the cap doesn't actually contact the legs of the cotter pin, but its one theory. Another has it that out of balance tires will do it. They say that there is some sort of harmonic that reverberates through the wheel and causes the cap to fly into space. Could be I suppose. Another one is the axle nut too tight or too loose. The thinking here is that it causes the bearings to run hot, heating the hub, which then expands, and kapoweee, the cap is history. Another one that is pretty commonly heard is that the hub has a hairline crack that you may not be able to see. Let me tell you, when that old cast iron cracks you see it, and you see it very clearly. The metal darkens right around the crack and it will stand out like a lightening strike on a dark night. For all I know invisible space monkeys from the planet Zork in the constellation Humongos (8th zerkonian dimension) buzz down and eat the dam things for lunch, sounds about as plausable as some of the reasons I've heard. <br /><br />All I know for sure is that sooner or later the tape sort of puckers up and needs to be replaced but the set screws will definitly hold the caps or bearing buddys in place. Oh, but if you do drill and tap you need to pick up a coupld of allen wrenchs of the right size and stick them in the glove box of the truck, and maybe on in the boat somewhere, and maybe tape one somewhere onto the trailer too (I keep a couple of spare allen wrench and cotter pins taped to the inside of a frame rail on the trailer). <br /><br />Also, those thick aluminum bearing buddys made by Red Eye really work well with the set screws. I actually drilled a small dimple into them, when I used to use them, to accept the tip of the set screw. You can't do that with the stainless bearring buddys or with stock grease caps, or with the stamped metal grease caps that are used with posilube systems either. You also have to be a bit careful when using set screws with stamped steel caps. If you over tighten the set screw it will distort the cap and allow for some very slight grease leakage. <br /><br />Your trick of making one good tight wrap with electrical tape works wonders to stop that little bit of seapage though. The only trick I've found there is to make sure you give the cap and hub a quick wipe down with acetone a minute or two before you try to tape it. The reason is that there is almost alway some residual grease on the parts there and it interfears with the electrical tape sticking like it should.<br /><br />Thom
<br /><br />Its an excellent link! Nice pix. Thanks!!!
