Banal .. Open to any topic on and off topics etc

[Macca]

Be back for the pumpkin soup this evening Shall leave you know who here.
Another $250 left at Port Wakefield yesterday. Got there at 9.30. Bruce had rung Ian as soon as we left Springton & got into service about the hubs too warm. BBA reckoned that the lad who did the work 3 weeks ago did not adjust correctly but did not say that to Ian. Anyway they checked all (3 hours) took a couple of test drives, still one a little hot. Decided to check out the controller which was at least 6/7 years old. Found a connection off inside that! Therefore it was not doing its job correctly (how I understand the situation) Anyway $200 for new controller & only $50 for 3 hour labour.

[T1 Terry]

You've gotta be happy with that one. I wonder why the problem has only just shown up though, since you had the other work done. Maybe the van brakes haven't been working properly for some time.
you have to wonder how long this guy is goi to be able to stay in business though, I was the same when I had my business, couldn't charge the time taken unless it was all actually doing something constructive, took me 12 yrs to go belly up.

[Macca]

The saga continues. Bruce being Bruce decided just to check out the bearing situation. Got into one only to discover that there was SOME grease smeared around the edge but none in the actual bearings!!!! How long would they have lasted.
Guess where we are headed in the am- back to B----y Port Wakefield. Apparently the lad who did the job 3 weeks ago after leaving Auburn is a Boiler maker?

[BruceS]

Surely a place like that would have a bearing grease packer? I've got one here but you're heading the other way.
It is deceptive though.... sometimes it looks as if there's no grease on the actual rollers but there's a sufficient smear to do the job.
Does Bruce carry a grease gun? Only need a small one & an empty icecream container to store it in. Going into the outback he'll obviously have a couple of spare sets of bearings & seals?
That is one job I would do myself...... someone I can trust!!!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bearing-Grea ... 912wt_1086

Greasegun... http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Lever-Action ... _373wt_721

Saves getting into a BIG mess doing it by hand!!

[Macca]

Bruce wants to know whether you would grease them when you can see daylight through them. We have done 2,500ks since they were replaced 3 weeks ago!

[T1 Terry]

Wheel brg grease and how much is applied is an extremely deceptive thing. Wheel brg grease does not melt, so packing the centre of the hub or grease cap with "spare grease" achieves nothing but wasting grease and making the clean up to fit new brgs a much messier job.
Too much grease is packed inside the grease cap, or dust cap is what it really is these days, will cause it to pop off, too much packed inside and the expanding air will pop the grease seal out the back.

A little story. When the duplicate conveyer system was installed at one of the coal mines the head engineer discovered they had supplied sealed brgs on all the rollers. So a maintenance crew was given the task of replacing the seal roller brgs with greasable brgs. They started at the high load areas where they knew failures occured in the no1 conveyer. When they were part way through the operation they discovered that the greasable brgs they had replaced were failing yet they still had seal brgs in high load areas still to replace and they were still operational. As a stop gap measure they replaced the failed brg blocks with the sealed brgs they had removed previously to get the conveyer back on line.
The end result was the prepacked brgs were outlasting the greasable type brgs, they were running cooler and no outside contamination was introduced to accelerate the brg failures. They now use nothing but pre packed sealed brgs. Apparently too much grease is worse than insufficient grease due to heat build up.

T1 Terry
EDIT:
"Bruce wants to know whether you would grease them when you can see daylight through them. We have done 2,500ks since they were replaced 3 weeks ago!"
Then yes, there is insufficient grease and it sound like the brgs were not packed at all. there should be a clear bead of grease visible both sides of the roller cone.

[BruceS]

Definately...... what T1 said!!!
Whoever does it has 2 choices........ forcing it through by hand (prick of a job) or a packer.......
I know which I'd prefer!

[T1 Terry]

I still do it by hand, packing the grease in the brgs Dottie I've done so many over the yrs I couldn't be bothered finding the packer unit, filling the grease gun and then cleaning all the gear up afterwards. Pack the brg, wrap it back in the plastic it came in, do all of them, scrap the grease off the hand and wipe it on all the cup faces and a swear on the axle itself so the brg doesn't jam up on the way on and a light wipe inside the seal and on the seal face before actually sliding the hub on.

[Macca]

Shall continue this saga from Pt Wakefield to-morrow.

[Dot]

Sounds like you men will all go blind doing all those greasy things by hand. How many chinamen has BBA run over then? BTW did you get your cord back??