Hey guys, what is the best method to determine when you can no longer maintain your bearings and simply should buy new? Also, how many times do you think you can remove the seals before it's just time to replace?

Thanks!

The only bearings I clean (and keep clean) are ceramics, because they're expensive. The normal ones I just replace when they get overly gritty. I used to pop the seals and attempt to clean/regrease them, but they almost seem to immediately get dirty again.

i use to do the same when i had metal sheilded ones but now i just run the rubber sheilded ones and rairly have any contamination issues. if i geta really gritty one ill run it till the replacement comes in the mail then i just tooss the old one.

i never buy high end bearings, buck-a-boca is good enough for me, i replace them as soon as i get a little grit, im a little nutz when it comes to bearings and linkages.

When the part they are supposed to hold in place is able to wobble around in about a 20 degree circle.



I tend to let things go pretty far when it comes to wear. Get every inch I can out of every part I have.

thing is, slop in certain parts, like diffs, can prematurely wear because of a 99cent bearing. tires on the other hand, i run them till they split.

but im both a mechanic and a antique fan restorer, so i really watch out for wear, if i see a teeny bit of play, it might as well be a mile.

This is the point at which I can justify replacing bearings.





I'm in a "Do I want to eat tomorrow or do I want to buy parts for an RC I run maybe once every other week?" situation. I can't justify replacing bearings when they've got just enough slop to be noticeable. It even shows in my 1:1s, the steering system in my daily has about a quarter turn worth of play between input and wheel reaction. I have to choose between replacing worn linkages or eating for the next week, and since the worn linkages aren't threatening to break(They've lasted six years and just over 100,000 miles with that slop in them without any changes whatsoever, if they were going to break they would have by now), I opt to eat instead.



I'd love to be able to afford to replace bearings on a moment's notice. But I can't. so I have to get every last rotation I possibly can out of them.

if i was you, i would eat ramen noodles and give up R/cs for months and get your suspension system fixed, it can go for 200k miles or break with no warning today, my father learned the hard way, the tire went underneath his car going 55mph, if he hadnt been on a rural road, he and other people may be dead today.

SOME slop is ok in suspension sytems but if you know it has issues your taking a huge huge huge gamble.

i have learned to give up the things i love for necessity, my corvette, going to the shooting range, running my r/c's, buying beer, buying tobacco, driving for fun, garage sales.

- i have very little right now i lost my job and unemployment, all i do is search for jobs and go to school once a week, i cant even afford gas to drive to calm my nerves, i MUST reserve fuel to finish college.

point im making is take care of what you have, even if it takes sacrificing your time with it or sacrificing something else.

I don't have the option of doing that either. That would put my truck down for the count for at least a couple of weeks. My dad currently has to rely on mine to get to work because the brakes just kind of stopped working entirely on his truck. Pedal just drops to the floor, nothing happens.


If I put mine on stands and start working on the steering linkages he won't be able to get to work.


I am fixing it as best I can. Six months ago the ball joints in the I-beams that hold the knuckles on were so badly fubar that the tires had about 3-4 degrees of negative camber and would flop around like crazy. The steering had about half a turn of play in it then. We put new ones in it as soon as we could afford to and we didn't have to rely on it just to get to work...and matter of fact the next thing that will be addressed will be those very lnikages. But to change them we need to save up the $150 or so the alignment shop will want to set the camber and toe(We just eyeballed the camber when we changed the balljoints, it's close enough for now) on top of the cost of buying the parts, and that will have to wait until after we put $300 worth of brake parts into the other F150. It may be another year before I get those linkages changed, longer still if I manage to land a 9-5 of my own and have to commute with it.


I'm well aware of that. I wouldn't have gotten to 300,000 miles if I didn't take care of it.

Ok, just watch it, when something pops it can be very violent.


if you run the pads/shoes too long (or if you have a small leak) you may run the master cylinder low, if you hit the brakes when its low you can make it gulp air, enough air and it will make your pedal like your stepping on a marshmallow, filling up the master will not fix the problem, fill it up, bleed it and see if that works.

good luck.

Master's full. Won't fix it. The long and short of it is: The entire system is FUBAR. We think a previous owner might have done a lot of brakestands, as the rear drums are positively cooked while the front discs aren't. It's had some sort of jerry-rigged crap done to the rear lines too, and the rear lines are leaking at the slave cylinders as a result. On top of that the brake booster is torn, so that doesn't work.


So we're just going to replace everything from the pedal out.

WHEEW! that sucks, i can fix pretty much anything on a car, but when someone else's mitts has been in there, its extremely difficult to pinpoint and repair problems. ive seen some horrible mickey-mouse hack jobs and they are almost always hard to reverse.

slave cylinders almost never let go of a line when you loosen them. probably went.

-rear brake lines rusted up
-rupture due to stress and poor shape
- owner attempting to hack a new length of line with compression fittings
-owner successfully screws up slave cylinder threads
-owner says "screw it" and tightens the line up as best he can.
- new owner gets car lines continue to leak
- so much fluid is lost and so much air is replaced now brakes don't work.

Here's what they did. Ok, the rubber line that runs from the steel one on the frame rail to the steel one on the axle let go. Typical of old trucks, and this is an '84. Instead of dropping $15 on a rubber line, they chose instead to extend the steel line back another three feet or so to roughly where the spare tire's tread would be if it were still there. They did this by using an inlnie coupler. This then has a length of rubber hose about two feet long, which connects to the steel line that used to run to the master cylinders, only now it's horribly mangled and spliced together with a T. This all floats freely behind the axle as well, it's not restrained at all. There isn't any rust on the steel lines, but they are positively redneck awful just the same, and will be replaced. We think they're leaking at the slaves because of the strain of supporting all that line through suspension movement rather than any issue with the threads, and we'll merely rebuild the slaves rather than fully replace them as they seem to still be saveable.


Whoever put those lines in has no business working on anything...


I took pictures of the drums and shoes, you can see them here. I'll get pictures of the ghetto redneck brake line when we go to tear it out and replace it with what's supposed to be under there.


Also, the master cylinder never got low on fluid. First thing I checked when my dad limped it home was the brake fluid level, and it was good.

For me it depends on which RC and where on the RC. I have been learning over the years for ex.. that letting LST2 clutch bearings go til they "go" is a bad idea.. Better to just replace with new every gallon to gallon and a half.. Because it sucks to be out somewhere and have them go out.. First time it happened I thought my engine was toast, or the 2-speed, etc.. Nope, clutch bearings shot. This has happened a couple times.

I never really change other bearings - especially wheel bearings. Diff bearings OK if while I'm rebuilding they look or feel gritty or something..

So Does anyone else use one of these? http://peteshobbies.com/prcp/Greaser...uy_greaser.htm I got mine for RC helicopters and havent really heard mention of them in the car crowd. I use some lubriplate electric motor grease and always put the cleaner side of the bearing down so it flushes grit out...not in. Amazing what comes out of these little guys and you really don't even need to mess with the shields just use moderate force and be patient while the grease moves through. If I get a real gritty one I grease/soak in solvent/regrease and you can really bring some of these guys back to life, and makes things in general a lot less sloppy than the factory pack. They do get rid of some grease after initial spinup, So if they are somewhere I'm worried about the mess or attracting dirt I spin them up on a tapered stick in my cordless drill before install. I'm obviously pretty happy with this thing. Todd