EZ Lube Gone Wrong

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Cliff Hotchkiss

�� It’s too bad whoever was working at Dexter the day they put mine together didn’t follow the instructions “to the letter “.
No big deal, couple hours work, 4 new seals, a little bit of grease and it’ll probably be good for another 50k miles. We’ll see.
By the way I watched a YouTube video where the guy was doing his EZ-lube axles. Think he went through almost 2 tubes of grease for each wheel. That’s probably 4 times the amount of grease necessary to hand pack. Just saying ��

One full sized tube of grease should last years, using E-Z Lube properly.
I have actually seen bearings destroyed when hand packing by improper reassembly.
I did inspection and repack on my trailer as soon as I got it home, when it was new. After that, I use the EZ-Lube system unless the brakes need inspection or service.

EZ-Lube is effective, easy and convenient.
Those who don't agree are welcome to the extra work.

[Raspy]

I'm glad some are happy with the EZ Lube, but it has a few things that don't appeal to me. It can cause a lot of problems if not done just right, which means a lot of people will have trouble with it. The contaminated grease from the rear bearing gets pumped into the front bearing. There is no way to determine if the seal is leaking unless the brakes fail or the wheel is removed, and it is much more likely to leak with a hub completely full of grease. The bearing preload still needs to be adjusted periodically. The brakes need to be inspected which still requires removal of the drum. The seal needs to be replaced occasionally. The system wastes a lot of grease.

The bearings should be inspected occasionally by removing them, washing them in solvent and inspecting the rollers and races. That doesn't happen if you just pump more grease into them.

EZ lube, greases the bearings, but that is only part of the process.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Raspy

I'm glad some are happy with the EZ Lube, but it has a few things that don't appeal to me. It can cause a lot of problems if not done just right, which means a lot of people will have trouble with it. The contaminated grease from the rear bearing gets pumped into the front bearing. There is no way to determine if the seal is leaking unless the brakes fail or the wheel is removed, and it is much more likely to leak with a hub completely full of grease. The bearing preload still needs to be adjusted periodically. The brakes need to be inspected which still requires removal of the drum. The seal needs to be replaced occasionally. The system wastes a lot of grease.

The bearings should be inspected occasionally by removing them, washing them in solvent and inspecting the rollers and races. That doesn't happen if you just pump more grease into them.

EZ lube, greases the bearings, but that is only part of the process.

For fifty years, every rear drive vehicle in my fleet with conventional front wheel bearings got repacked upon delivery, then every time the brakes were serviced...about every 100,000 miles on disc brakes and a little sooner on drums.


One point which is seldom mentioned...
Trailer axles in general get low mileage and long storage.
It is the latter which causes most of the problems.
You could actually eliminate at least half of annual repacks if the trailer is towed for a half hour and brought to temperature every few months.


Your sage advice is well taken and your opinion is well respected, but the fact remains...
EZ-Lube is effective, easy and convenient.
Those who don't agree are welcome to the extra work.

[Raspy]

Floyd,

I agree that regular automotive front wheel bearing can go and have historically gone many thousands of miles in cars. It is still a bit confusing why trailers seem to need so much more wheel bearing maintenance. But even Dexter says they do.

And I'm not arguing with you about EZ Lube. I'm glad you like it. It's just not for me and I don't think it is for everyone, unless they understand and follow the directions.

[redbarron55]

Perhaps someone with the "good" equipment uses a pneumatic grease gun and filled those bearing.
Pump slowly whole turning until you see grease being expelled and that is all you need.
Of course I only have 30-40 k miles on my EZ Lube axle so what do I know?

[Cliff Hotchkiss]

Originally Posted by redbarron55

Perhaps someone with the "good" equipment uses a pneumatic grease gun and filled those bearing.
Pump slowly whole turning until you see grease being expelled and that is all you need.
Of course I only have 30-40 k miles on my EZ Lube axle so what do I know?

Wheel bearings on cars routinely go twice that with zero maintenance and they work a lot harder. Dexter is probably right in recommendation of checking at 10 or 12 k miles by what I see on my axles. They blew it on their initial build. Pretty sure I could have gone many more miles without touching the bearings as there was no grease on the brake material, but I couldn’t justify putting it back together without packing the bearings. I really don’t think there’s an issue with “cheap” seals as many seem to think, I think it’s an issue of too much grease under too much pressure. Let you know in another year as my bearings are now hand packed and using OEM seals. Got them at the local NAPA store.

[Perryb67]

Originally Posted by floyd

Those who don't agree are welcome to the extra work.

It's really not any extra work, when you inspect your brakes and bearings. If you don't inspect your brakes and bearings you're exactly correct.

Enjoy,

Perry

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Perryb67

It's really not any extra work, when you inspect your brakes and bearings. If you don't inspect your brakes and bearings you're exactly correct.

Enjoy,

Perry

But I only need to remove the hubs to inspect my brakes about every 4 years and around 30,000 towed miles, which has proven to be a bit OCD even then.
It happens to coincide pretty much with replacing the tires so far.

[Cliff Hotchkiss]

Originally Posted by floyd

For fifty years, every rear drive vehicle in my fleet with conventional front wheel bearings got repacked upon delivery, then every time the brakes were serviced...about every 100,000 miles on disc brakes and a little sooner on drums.
.

I've never seen a set of brake pads ever get close to 100k on anything. What's your secret?

[redbarron55]

Wheel bearings on most vehicles run without attention for 100 k miles easily and trailers can as well.
A main difference is the lack of use and on boat trailers contamination from immersion in water.
One problem is as much over lubrication as much as under as if the bearing housing is packed full the grease has no where to go when the rollers push the grease out of the races. If the grease is churned by the rollers due to over greasing then the greas will heat up and the grease will cook and force the oil out of the emulsion a failure will result.
Grease really does not circulate in the bearing, but rather the grease next to the bearing gives up a little oil that really does the lubrication.
In my opinion more problems are caused by over servicing than under.
Grease seals leak when the pressure from the grease pushes it past the lip and the only cause of this is too much grease.
Recently we had a failure in a 600 hp horizontal split pump. One bearing failed due to lack of grease (new pump installed by the manufacturer). The pump was automatically shut down on high temp by the sensors etc. When we took the pump apart we found that the bearing on the side that did not fail has just a small dab of grease on the bearing that looked like it would not do anything at all, but was enough to keep the bearing working.
The EZ Lube has a grease relief port at the outboard "seal" and if the wheel is turned slowly as the grease is slowly pumped in until the old grease shows up is plenty. Pumping and pumping and pumping until you see "clean, new" grease is not necessary. Any grease you use will change color and the dye dissipates resulting in the dark color more than the grease wearing out.
After greasing the EZ Lube keep spinning the wheel before you replace the rubber seal and clean out the old grease in the recess to allow for the excess still in the hub to have room to be pushed out.
Centrifugal force would tend to spin any grease next to the seal as it spins would tend to move grease away from the lip assuming no built up pressure within the hub.

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by Cliff Hotchkiss

I've never seen a set of brake pads ever get close to 100k on anything. What's your secret?

Our 2006 Honda CR-V has 202K on the original pads. Our 2011 Honda Pilot has 182K on the original pads. The CR-V is going to be due this fall.

Rural living, conservative driving, proper use of the transmission on grades... dunno?

[floyd]

Originally Posted by redbarron55

Wheel bearings on most vehicles run without attention for 100 k miles easily and trailers can as well.
A main difference is the lack of use and on boat trailers contamination from immersion in water.
One problem is as much over lubrication as much as under as if the bearing housing is packed full the grease has no where to go when the rollers push the grease out of the races. If the grease is churned by the rollers due to over greasing then the greas will heat up and the grease will cook and force the oil out of the emulsion a failure will result.
Grease really does not circulate in the bearing, but rather the grease next to the bearing gives up a little oil that really does the lubrication.
In my opinion more problems are caused by over servicing than under.
Grease seals leak when the pressure from the grease pushes it past the lip and the only cause of this is too much grease.
Recently we had a failure in a 600 hp horizontal split pump. One bearing failed due to lack of grease (new pump installed by the manufacturer). The pump was automatically shut down on high temp by the sensors etc. When we took the pump apart we found that the bearing on the side that did not fail has just a small dab of grease on the bearing that looked like it would not do anything at all, but was enough to keep the bearing working.
The EZ Lube has a grease relief port at the outboard "seal" and if the wheel is turned slowly as the grease is slowly pumped in until the old grease shows up is plenty. Pumping and pumping and pumping until you see "clean, new" grease is not necessary. Any grease you use will change color and the dye dissipates resulting in the dark color more than the grease wearing out.
After greasing the EZ Lube keep spinning the wheel before you replace the rubber seal and clean out the old grease in the recess to allow for the excess still in the hub to have room to be pushed out.
Centrifugal force would tend to spin any grease next to the seal as it spins would tend to move grease away from the lip assuming no built up pressure within the hub.

Great post, but a couple of points.

As you say the grease in an EZ-Lube hub is not captured. The access plug on the dust cover does not function as a "seal" it mere;y seals the dust cover,
Excess grease should be removed from the dust cover cavity after greasing the hub. After that the hub vents excess grease into the dust cover.
Properly done, an EZ-Lube hub/spindle can not be "over greased".


To form an emulsion. water must be present, whether from submersion or condensation, which brings us back to why storage is a cause for damage and what makes the combination of EZ-Lube and frequent use so effective as preventative maintenance.


Bearing Buddies do capture grease and keep it under pressure in a full hub to prevent water infiltration,yet they have been used for many decades on boat trailers without causing harm. They do not , however, repack or replace the grease when used, and a manual repack is still required.

[Cliff Hotchkiss]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

Our 2006 Honda CR-V has 202K on the original pads. Our 2011 Honda Pilot has 182K on the original pads. The CR-V is going to be due this fall.

Rural living, conservative driving, proper use of the transmission on grades... dunno?

😳 200+ miles, you are conservative! I’ve done at least a couple of thousand brake jobs including my own. On everything from dirt bikes to dump trucks and if you got 70 k you got your money’s worth. You are waaay ahead of the game.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Cliff Hotchkiss

I've never seen a set of brake pads ever get close to 100k on anything. What's your secret?

Rural living with open 30 mile commutes plus travel sometimes involving highway miles are factors.
Manual transmissions exclusively for 40 years is another factor.



Maybe it is also the old SCCA braking philosophy applied...


Brake...
As late as possible
As seldom as possible
and as hard as possible!


( the blue part is in jest)

[redbarron55]

Failure to clean out the dust cover on the EZ Lube and having it full except for where the grease gun connected and then putting the cover on will probably create a sealed system where the escape for the heated. churned grease is the rear seal.
When greased the EZ lube will run a little hotter as the excess grease is pushed out the ends. There has to be space for the grease to be pushed out as it is coming out somewhere, best is the engineered space under the dust cap.
The centrifugal forces will tend to move the grease to the outer circumference of the hub and away from the spindle.
These hubs will run warm until the excess grease is expelled as with any greased high speed.bearing

[ZachO]

My Tacoma is at 278,000 miles, with original drum brake pads. I did replace the front disc pads at 189,000. The rears are still over 50%.

The thinking on Toyota forums is that it’s an aftermarket vs OEM thing.

[jimknoch]

Originally Posted by ZachO

Pro needs to be in quotes. Anyone can screw up, but having just come from Les Schwab to get my tires rotated, I can tell you that very few of the employees working there could be considered "pros". Same with oil change places. Those people are not mechanics, and I never let someone like that touch my truck if I can help it. I try to tell myself you can't mess up a tire rotation too badly...

I prefer to even do that myself but without a garage, driveway or floor jack, it's just too much of a pain.

ZachO; Don't think those non-pro mechanics at a tire center can screw up a tire rotation? Wife went to have the tires rotated on her Ford Focus and they used a wrong sized 12 point socket on the pneumatic impact tool, then after rounding off all of the lug nuts on all 4 wheels (16 in total), they told her that they couldn't rotate the tires until all the lug nuts were replaced. When she returned home, I used my 6 point impact socket of the correct size with my electric impact driver and easily removed the lug nuts and rotated her tires and then reinstalled the nuts, then torqued them down with my 1/2" torque wrench. Obviously the only thing the worker had been trained to do was pull the trigger on the impact wrench ... I will not buy another tire from them nor pay for tire rotations as long as I am still able to do it myself. Oh, BTW back in my working profession, I was an electrical engineer, not an auto mechanic. Good luck with the "New Service Providers" ... Jim

[redbarron55]

Now a days professional means that they expect to be paid, not that they are particularly well trained or experienced.

[ZachO]

It's true, which is why I "try to tell myself" they can't screw it up...

Les Schwab does do minor repairs, so I have a little more faith. But I think it's often different people doing rotations and repairs. The less experienced people are doing rotations.

Next time I buy tires I'm going with a different shop in town that I trust a bit more. It's just nice out here to deal with Les Schwab, since I get free rotations and flat fixes in any town with a store, and there are a lot of stores regionally.