Inspecting Hubs and Grease Seals

With about 20,000 miles on my Wildcat I decided I wanted to check the brakes, bearings and grease seals.

Al-Ko made my axles and they now have owner's manuals and parts catalogs on their web site. I called their customer service number in the owner's manual and got cross reference part numbers for the grease seals from three different manufacturers. I purchased them from Napa.

Three of the four grease seals had let some grease through into the hub. Nothing serious. I used brake cleaner to remove the grease.

I removed all the old grease from the hubs and bearings. The bearings were fine but were a little loose. The cotter pin is a pain to insert because the hole is offset from the center to allow for the grease fitting. Remove one and use it as a guide to get the exact size replacement. I used 1/8' x 1 3/4' pins from Lowes.

The owner's manual describes how to adjust the bearings and how to get the proper 'feel.' I'm not sure I did it right so I'm going to get my dad to double check.

If you don't feel confident in your abilities, you may want to get help with this job. The outer bearing is held on with a flat washer, nut and cotter pin. The washer is not notched or keyed, it spins freely on the spindle. Bearings that are too lose can spin on the spindle, spinning the washer which tries to spin the nut. Only the cotter pin prevents the nut from spinning off and then your tire will come off and pass you going down the freeway. I have heard of this happening.

This is a good time to adjust your brakes and check the magnets. With the tire off the ground, give it a spin and have someone pull the manual lever on your brake control. The tire should stop. A simple test but this makes sure all four magnets are working ok.