You know when you do a job...and you did such a poor job that you get to do it again?
Only this time with new parts.
It occurred to me whilst doing this job that I have never...ever...replaced a wheel bearing. On anything bigger than a bicycle. I watched a YouTube video weeks ago about it on a more modern Massey Ferguson tractor and thought that looks like a trailer wheel bearing. But until today, when I was using a pin punch to get the new inner race into the old hub, I realised...I’ve never done this before. How does that happen? How do I even know what I’m doing is write...right?
Experience is not just learning by doing...it’s learning by absorbing. I absorbed the fact that I failed the first time in dealing with this because I assumed that a wheel bearing should have the same hydraulic stiffness regardless of its application.
The last time I left this wheel bearing it had the hydraulic stiffness of a bicycle. I’ve done plenty of bicycle hubs of both cup & cone and the sealed bearing variety (the latter is far superior). But it turns out that this is not the correct measure in Tractor World...
When the front tyre rubs on the radius arm over the spindle carrier...the wheel bearing is truly stuffed. So this time I replaced it. The Lad supervised the removal of the concrete filled wheel (that looks heavy) and the grease filled hub (that grease looks yucky and smells like poo) but bailed when I started hitting stuff (it’s boring and you might swear).
No swearing... because hubs are greasy, heavy, messy and...in this case, easy. Two new races, two new bearings, a metric shit tonne of new grease and job’s done. Push it all back on the spindle, do up the castellated nut, fit the split pin, add more grease and install the hub cover...
Hydraulic stiffness reinstated...now to do the other side...and replace the tie rod ends...and...
Just as aside...the wheel bearings had been there awhile. The one’s I removed were Australian made Timken branded units. They haven’t been made here since the turn of the century...
