Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Bad Wheel Bearings or Flat Tires?
#20
I feel as though I am a subject matter expert on this...

The nightmare happened to me back in March and I was highly unprepared to handle it.

I feel as though I am 100% prepared now!

Amazon and Harbor Freight are your friends and spending some $$ now verse when it happens (it will happen someday to pretty much everyone) is highly worth it!

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=922511#922511"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...i?post=922511#922511[/url]

After it was all a done deal and behind me I never took a picture of the kit I assembled but I feel I have just about everything on hand now. It is at least 3 times bigger than what you have pictured above. I spent just about $100 bucks at Harbor Freight for tools (I didn't want to raid the garage tools) and a nice canvas tool bag to put them all in.

Well less than $100 on Amazon for spare this and thats all related to wheel bearings.

Items I don't see mentioned above...

Pipe wrench. It saved the day. The inner bearing had spun on the spindle/spindle was slightly chewed and I couldn't get it off. The pipe wrench had enough grip on the super hard metal race since it had some chew marks on it to be able to grip/spin the race and work it off.

File... Damage on the spindle one needs a file to clean it to be able to slide new bearings on.

Punch/chisel. I used several different sized punches to get the old races out of the hub. I used several different sized chisels to remove some metal on the spindle from the chewed up areas before hitting them with a file for a final clean.

Baling wire, zip ties, duck tape, electrical tape, simple metal saw blade/handle, chunk of 2x4, old house door mat to kneel on, cleaner/solvent, rags, small pry bar, a decent rubber mallet, small flat faced sledge hammer for tapping in races/seals if needed/one doesn't have a spare hub and has to re-do the bearings like I ended up doing, etc.

There is more to a serious road side wheel bearing repair than what one would think... Knowing which tools saved the day and which ones I wish I had after the wife arrived at the lake with my "initial tool request" made my list pretty long for a emergency kit.

You really have to look it all over and go through what if I see this, do I have a tool to handle it with me?

Think along the line... What if all is chewed up and the spindle nut is destroyed (I was able to re-use mine to get home but it was in baaaad shaped). The washer that goes between the spindle nut and outer bearing was destroyed and I drove home without it.

I have spare ones now... I have spare every single thing now. Cotter keys, seals, spindle nut/washer, ez lube grease caps, etc. I also have 2 spare hubs. Complete and ready to go! One in the back of the truck and one that dupes as the spare tire holder. Maybe overkill but I don't want to go through what happened again. I was semi "lucky" that it wasn't on the freeway side, I was at the closest possible place to fish from my house, it was during the day, etc. Being 300-500 miles away from home I would of been suckin'!

Last but not least... I have boat insurance. I never/hardly ever review stuff so didn't have a clue/remember what it covered. Once home I looked it over online and I had up to $600 worth of towing on it. Either on land or on the water. Good to know now. At the time if I had known I would of just had it towed home and taken care of it in the comfort of my garage with the right tools on hand. But on the flip side I know what is needed to handle it road side...
[signature]
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Bad Wheel Bearings or Flat Tires? - by Old_Coot - 04-30-2015, 01:35 AM
Re: [Old_Coot] Bad Wheel Bearings or Flat Tires? - by wolfs4evr - 05-31-2015, 05:28 PM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 3 Guest(s)