ITA 240SX Wheel Bearing Re-packing

[joeg]

If I had those "cartidge bearings" I would not be ripping them apart to repack.

Many people do it, but I still just think if you buy a quality bearing, why mess with it.

Hubs are a whole other issue, but all hub failures I have experienced were Hub nut torque issues. If they get loose, both the hub and bearings suffer.

[Matt93SE]

The torque is also an issue with these cars. For the S13, you need to torque them to the MAX of the factory settings, if not a little higher. The factory spec on an S13 chassis is like 180-220ft lb or something. Nearly the identical bearing and hub on an S14 chassis is specd at like 220-250ft lb. those are ballpark from memory, but the point is the S14 uses the same damn bearing and it's torque spec is 40ft lb higher. The guys that torque the crapola out of the hub nut tend to have better longevity than the guys that run it at minimum of spec..


The reason for rebuilding is the grease used in the bearings from the factory is junk for the heat seen in road racing, and there is a fairly short life of bearings under race use. If you take them apart and repack them with better grease, they last quite a bit longer.

That said, some of these bearings you can take apart and repack. others you can't. On most of the "Nissan" bearings I've seen, the shell just slides apart by hand. Others are pressed together and I think you wind up doing more damage in the rebuild process by deforming the races than if you were to just leave them there and run the junk grease.

[Tristan Smith]

There is a way to repack the bearings without taking them apart. You just need a needle for your grease gun.

[Matt93SE]

... And a powered parts washer to flush out all the old grease.

[erlrich]

There is a way to repack the bearings without taking them apart. You just need a needle for your grease gun.

They also make tools just for packing bearings - like this one. Of course, those only work if you can remove the bearing from the hub.

Then again, I was taught loooong ago how to pack bearings by hand - just put a big gob of grease in your palm and work it into the bearing until it squishes out the other side. Cheap and effective

On edit: I was also going to say that I'm always surprised to hear about these hubs/bearings going bad. I bought new bearings several years ago, planning to replace the ones on my car (the ones that were on the car when I bought it in '02), and they're still in the boxes. And I check them before every weekend. Seems like maybe under-tightening could be leading to the problems? Or I am just incredibly lucky?

[Matt93SE]

The problem with simply repacking bearings like that is that you need to remove the old grease. Often they're different soaps (moly based instead of lithium base, etc etc etc) and the greases don't mix, or will chemically fight with each other and cause other ugly issues. So it's important to remove the old grease before packing new stuff in.

[DavidM]

Torque spec for the S13 front bearing from the FSM is 150-175 ft-lbs. I've been using 180. I *think* it's ok to split apart the front bearings, but am not 100% certain at this point. The inner pieces are just held in place by the tabs on the inside of the plastic bearing cages and I don't see how popping out the inner piece could hurt things. I won't know more until I put a re-packed bearing into a different hub.

I think using hubs off used cars is fine and I plan on getting a couple more to keep as spares.

I'm definitely surprised you haven't seen issues Earl. I'd check the wheels periodically and if you get any play replace the bearings immediately.

David