Repacking Front Wheel Bearings-2002 Diplomat 40DST

[Schrimscher]

We bought the coach last November with 33,000 miles on it. No records with the rig regarding the wheel bearings ever being repacked..... I'm figuring they need to be repacked. I've repacked numerous auto, pickup and a couple smaller motorhomes, but nothing this big. I could take it to a shop, but that is a hassle and I have more time than money. Have any of you done it and would appreciate any tips to ease the job ??
Thanks in advace....this is a great forum.

[Randy blase]

Do they have grease in them or are they oil filled?

[Mike Canter]

You are going to have to replace the inner oil seals also. Have you got all the tools needed?

[Schrimscher]

Thanks Randy and Mike for your input....appreciate it. The bearings are in grease and Mike , it looks like I am short on a LARGE socket to get the hub nut off.
FYI, and update for all : yesterday I removed the 6 bolts holding the grease cover and jacked the front wheels off the ground to see if I could detect any looseness in the wheel. All looked good, but I don't think the bearings have ever been repacked. Also, found that I did not have a large enough socket to fit the hub nut. Since I had the wheels off the ground, I was able to rotate the wheel and pack a good amount of grease in the outer bearing....better than nothing and all I could do at the time. Put the grease cover back on. Couldn't get to the inner bearing, of course. Noticed the grease cover said use grease only, so, repacking will do for my limited travels rather than going to the oilers.
After considering the need for a larger socket and the manhandling of a 225+ pound tire/wheel/hub assembly that it is a job for the shop so they can repack both inner and outer bearings while I relax and watch.
Thanks to all
Paul

[walt2137]

Paul the sockets that you will need is 2 1/4 and a 2 5/8 and yes I have converted two coaches to oilers I did our 2000 Dyn with 60,000 miles on the clock and the grease was in good shape it could have gone longer, the bearings looked good, just cleaned out the grease and new seal and about 18 to 20 Oz of lucas hub oil. But a repack would have been OK for me as I will never see over 120,000 miles on this coach.

[Robi.1014]

Walt,

Good to hear that at 60Kmiles and 10 years of age, your front wheel bearings and the grease looked healthy. Do you believe that this was the first lube-maintenance done on this axle? Just gauging where my rig might be (with 52K mi and 7 years of age).

[walt2137]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robi.1014 Walt, Good to hear that at 60Kmiles and 10 years of age, your front wheel bearings and the grease looked healthy. Do you believe that this was the first lube-maintenance done on this axle? Just gauging where my rig might be (with 52K mi and 7 years of age).

Robi yes I do believe that was the first repack, when I went to oilers on the other coach it also had around 60,000 and it was also in good shape and could have went longer and I know for sure it had never been repacked, I know that I would never repack at 30,000 miles. I went to hub oilers because I wanted to not because I needed to.

[Mike Canter]

That falls into the axle maker, Dana, says also. i had this in another thread.
Just got hold of the tech data on my Dana front axle. It says to repack grease bearings and change the oil in an oil bath at the same intervals. It says for Line Haul (18 wheeler) at 120,000 miles and Vocational (School Bus) at 60,000 miles. So I figure I fall somewhere in the middle. I would say that 70,000 miles as Bill stated is probably a good mid point for safety. Sure is different than what is in the Monaco manual.

Those specs are only for the Dana Spicer E1462 series axles and doesn't mean it is correct for all axles. You can see what axles you have by looking for the metal plate attached to the front of the cross axle I beam in the middle. That E1462 means it has a 14620 lb Gross Weight. It also applies to all other E series such as E1000, E1200, and E1320.

[Jimmyzw22]

Unless the seals are bad and grease/oil has leaked out or overheated they should be good up to 80k - 100k. I have taken apart cars and small trucks with over 200k on them and the bearings were still in great shape as long as the seal was intact. The problem is that when things sit for a long period of time the seals get hard and crack. Then you have oil/grease leaking out.