Front axle bearings

Basil Shannon · 10-18-2009, 07:54 AM

My 2006 owner's manual has a maintenance entry:
Front wheel bearings: Lube at 16K miles.

I take that as changing the lubricant. Is it sufficient to rotate the wheel until the drain/fill plug is on the bottom to drain it? Or must the wheel be removed and hub disassembled to get it all for which a truck place charged me over $100 in labor to do.

Norm4015 · 10-18-2009, 08:00 AM

If you have wet lube front bearings that is what you do. Drain the old oil and fill with new. I do mine once a year and it is too much trouble and work to rotate the wheels and wait for the oil to drain. I pop off the inspection cap and suck the old oil out with a turkey baster. Then I slowly add oil until it reaches the full mark and pop the cap back in place.

Wally & Debbie · 10-18-2009, 04:36 PM

Basil
Some hub cover styles have the Plug on the side and some don't The ones that don't, do have a flat spot where you could drill and tap for a plug. However to answer your question yes you can drain from that plug and then refill to the line. I don't see a need to pull the wheel and hub unless you have a rear seal leaking or a contamination problem.

Jeff_S · 10-18-2009, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Norm4015

If you have wet lube front bearings that is what you do. Drain the old oil and fill with new.

What type of oil is used for the wet front axle bearings?

Old Rv'er · 10-19-2009, 10:33 AM

Basil - Based on the comments above, I am going to assumy you are going to do this job. How/what is your method of getting the coach in the air to turn the wheel, or, are you just going to move it a little bit and get the screw at the bottom of the circle, then drain the oil, move it till it's at the top and then fill it? I am reluckant to just use the leveling jacks to raise the coach off the ground. Today I am going to look at 12T bottle Jacks which I would use for this purpose.

dgerstel · 10-19-2009, 10:39 AM

I use the jacks to raise the coach for work. If I am going under it, I use 2 HD jack stands as backup.

EngineerMike · 10-19-2009, 11:05 AM

For something like this or to change a tire, I raise the corner in question enough for the chore (usually to get clearance of tire around wheel well), then throw a 12T jack under the axle to get the tire barely off the ground. That way it doesn't stretch the air bag(s). Then I work outside the drop zone of the coach.

Alpine Road Warrior · 10-19-2009, 01:15 PM

Do all Alpines have wet bearings? And are you talking about the front wheel bearings? I have 15M on my Coach and it has never been done. It would be nice to have a yearly maintanance schedule since WRV never included it with my coach.

Audrey & John · 10-19-2009, 03:23 PM

John is convinced our wheel bearings are completely sealed and don't require lube. Is he wrong? 2006 Alpine Ltd.

Audrey

Basil Shannon · 10-19-2009, 04:42 PM

Alpine Road Warrior: There is a 2008 owner's manual complete with maintenance schedule on the ACA website

http://www.alpinecoachassociation.co...s%20Manual.pdf

dgerstel · 10-19-2009, 05:59 PM

My 2002 and 2007 both have "wet" bearings on the front.

EngineerMike · 10-19-2009, 07:08 PM

Audrey- pull the hubcap off (a largish flat blade screwdriver against the rim/wheel seam & twist; it should pop loose). You should see the Stemco oil-bath wheel lube covers being discussed here.

jetar · 10-19-2009, 08:33 PM

Question? Does lube mean to remove and replace oil or just make sure lube is up to the bottom of the cup on the hub? I thought it was the latter, but maybe I am misinformed, as usual. The lube on my 01 does not look contaminated as if you could tell by looking and I have topped them off a couple of time in the 100,000 miles I have driven the coach.