Wheel Bearing Grease/Fronted work.

[k20]

Hey all, over my christmas break (2 weeks yahoo) im planning on repacking my front wheel bearings and puttin new pads on my front axle. I rear that marine grease is what you should use if you play in mud or water(me). Other day at pepgirls i noticed they had a couple kinds of grease. One was marine, was was wheel bearing, and one was high temp wheel bearing for disk brakes. My question is the marine grease temp was only like 250degs. The disk brake wheel bearin grease was like 500. Was this just a crappy marine or are they all that low of a temp resistance? What is the minimum temp? Also, ive never done this before (its a 10 bolt frontend by the way) how hard is it really? I payed someone to do it the first time, now i want to. Also should i just buy new bearings cause Im sure these are probably original.

Also, back when my truck actually ran (im only doing this if i get my engine goin soon) if i was sitting still and turned the wheel, like say back out of the driveway and turned the tires while stopped, or if i was going really slow and turned the wheel to lock or almost there, there was a popping sound. What is it? It only started a week or so before my old engine blew so i kinda forgot about it. Balljoints or what? the tire doesnt move around if you just grab it and try to wiggle it. What gives? Thanks guys, i know its alot of questions.

 

[daleearnhardt01]

The only thing I can tell you is repacking the bearings is a peace of cake. Just take the rotor off and have at it. Im used to puttin em in a thing where I push a lever and it forces the grease all up in em. Im not sure how you'd do it without that. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

Oh yeah I remember you said you might look at comin to Virginia Tech for yer edumacation. I figured Id ask since its that time of year for college apps /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif We could use some more older chevys in the 4wd club. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

 

[R72K5]

i would go with the normal 500 degree wheel bearing grease for the wheel bearings


if you replace wheel bearings then dont forget new races also

youll have to remove hubs and nuts and such to get at the bearings, if you take your time and watch evwerything then youll be fine and then youll aleays know how to do this in the future, its hte only way to learn how to do repairs is to just do it, but i recommend a GM truck service manual, it just depends on your mechanical and memory abilities

some balljoints have wear indicator on them, and some dont, you have to remove weight from wheels/control arms in order to check for wear/slop in them, have to pry the hub with bar to check for ease of movement/wear

the pop when turning could very well be balljoint wear in which it probably most likely is what is happening but you gotta check for it

about the only thing youll be checking for when you simply grab hweel and yank in different directions is wheel bearing slop


hope some of this helps

good luck

 

[SUBFAN]

The noise while turning is probably axle U Joints....

For the wheel bearings, don't forget to pick up a spindle socket. fairly cheap, under $20, and necessary....

 

[k20]

Ok, so y'all think just forget about the marine grease? I dont have a GM manual got one on my xmas list though lol. ChevyDuty sells reprints of em for 99 bucks. I have the haynes manual, would that suffice?

Also someone mentioned u joints, can u-joints cause it to pop if its in 2wd hubs unlocked? They wouldnt be turning would they? Also, spindle socket, are there different sizes? If so which one would i need?

Va tech id like to go, but comin from outta state i just cant afford it. One of my friends is goin there , well, he'll know by dec 15th.