Steve, that rear end is a work of art! Just a thought, those sealed bearings are intended to run with a 60% - 75% of full capacity grease loading. Excess grease effectively acts like water does when a tyre aquaplanes, it makes the rolling element skate on the tracks which rapidly degrades the bearing. The excess grease loading will also generate more than normal heat as there’s not enough space for excess to occupy, so the extremely viscous grease is constantly forced around. With non-sealed bearings the pack it full by hand method is definitely the way to go. Ex-SBK R&D engineer.
Was just going to post to ask about this, you beat me to the punch with actual numbers. I'm floored, given the cost of bearings and studs that Steve wouldn't just put new in the hubs and leave his old set ready to go if he wanted to swap back later?
Was wondering if someone had mentioned that also. I'm a service tech for a large mower company and we have had a situation where spindle bearings where failing early and it turns out the manufacture of our bearings was putting to much grease in the bearings. It would push out a seal once it was hot and then let moisture in and the bearing would fail. They lowered the grease volume and the failures went away.
@@ChuckChuckBoBuck I'm not criticizing Steve, he does amazing stuff but for reference my old truck has a full floater too. Steve could make those hubs if he wanted to.
From a 30 year twin turbine EMS helicopter Mechanic those sealed ball bearings will be fine even on a drag and drive car. Also, a sealed ball bearing unit should never be packed past 75% grease capacity. A full bearing has a tendency to make the balls skip across the races instead of rolling across the races. That can possibly cause bearing failure. Also food for thought the front of most modern cars and trucks including big heavy 1 ton diesels use sealed unit bearings on the front and they can easily last over 100k miles. Even with big oversize mud tires on them.
Also I'd suspect that the factory grease was a synthetic variety and many times they look under-greased when new....but the manufacturers know what they're doing. I always worry about cross-contaminating greases without being fully up to speed on what is being replaced.
Yep SKF has lots of tech info on their site. Generally, the higher the RPM the less grease needed. The excess grease will escape because " sealed " bearings just have a thin rubber lip facing outwards to keep dust out not an actual inward seal to keep grease in .
Not to mention, those bearings were driven out without access to do so via the outer race... Granted, they weren't a super tight fit but still, I'm now firmly in camp replace with new.
As Steve is educating us on full floating axles and how they work, the sound in the background is a solid block of aluminum being turned into an engine block. That is the sound of horsepower being created. requests that members send him bones-lots of them.
Having the full float brake disc allows it to expand when hot without warping. You see that a lot on motorcycles and road race cars that have extremely hot running brakes.
Bicycles too, same reason, long descent and your rotors get super hot. My Hope discs are actually a stainless surface on an aluminum holder for some extra heat dissipation and less mass
I hope you didn't over pack the bearings. That rear end is a work of art. WOW.... Your Hi-Def video is absolutely incredible and incredible editing... I'm a gear head from Atlanta living in Thailand for 15 years. I was Alan's Performance specializing in Dodge Viper Performance. Thank you for all of the enjoyment and knowledge you have shared. Alan 😎
I was reading through the comments to see if anyone picked up on this (over packing the bearings). Many years ago, when I took my industrial maintenance cert. test, there was a true/false question about overheating bearings packed too full of grease. The answer was true! Those bearings are over packed. He was worried of the service life of those bearings, Having installed thousands of them in some really brutal environments in 24/7 operating plant, those bearings will outlive that car with the minimal grease that came in them.
The seals will stay in place since they are just a rubber flap and the excess grease will exit the seal. Generally, the higher the RPM the less grease that is needed. There is a whole science to how much grease is needed in the bearing. SKF has some tech info.
Most of the grease will end up on other side of bearing when it heats up, that's why you only pack one side. New bearing will have one side full and not much on other side.
I was wondering that if the floater feature is only needed during catastrophic event, it wouldn't need to greased much. But high speed makes sense for light pack. Thanks.
Cleaning and regreasing isn’t an issue as long as you don’t pack too much grease in places where contamination can occur on other components when the bearings heat up and expel the excess grease. I grease hub assemblies on all my trucks and cars once a year for the ones that see the most use and abuse
it'll push a bit but not blow *if* there was too much. He put a super reasonable amount of grease in those bearings, and there's no reason to replace a good bearing just because you're afraid of overfilling it
An old dirt track trick on full floater axles, take and mark a straight line from spline to spline when its new, then when doing maintenance ypu can check to see if it is twisting.
About 30 years ago, an ole farmer taughy me how to pack bearings. Never knew until later in life how powerful of a skill that was. Hardly anyone i knew could pack bearings. Like that. The bench top tool works great too. But in the field your hand is the best.
I did thousands of bearings by hand until last year when a pretty young salesman (saleslady?) had the Lisle one on special. I figured I would give it a shot. I do really like it for the speed, but I don't like the idea of pushing the old grease out with the new stuff. It is also hard to inspect a bearing properly when it is covered in old black grease. I clean them up, give them a look over, then repack.
@@--_DJ_-- spend 5 minutes and wipe off all the excess old grease and flush the bearings out using the part’s washer, followed by a spritz of Brake-Kleen, a blow dry holding the bearings cage to prevent it from spinning, and then repack with your Lisle bearings packer.
@gullreefclub Thank you for pointing out the "hold the cage" part of the compressed air step..aside from the fact that a nice dry high speed spin will gall the snot out of a bearing, if the cage lets go the bearings go ballistic and the cage will slice up your fingers like a honey baked ham.. Watched a fellow student do it forty-some years ago..looked painful!
Followup, you have over greased the bearing. They are factory sealed. Over filling like that will force past the seals in use. In this case the lost grease will be flung outward into your brake rotor. Just put a fresh bearing in with factory grease.
I've packed them like that for 30 years ,absolutely no problems. Have you ever opened up a brand new bearing and seen the grease in them,it's soild grease all the way around. Most of that grease will end up on the other side, that's why you never pack both sides!
The reason wheel bearings are packed full is that once they spin up, the excess grease is pushed to the periphery where it acts as a grease reservoir. There is no room for that in a sealed bearing. If you open up a sealed bearing after it is been in operation you will find the grease pack is about 30% of the available volume. The the spinning balls evacuate a path and the rest of the grease is flung to the perimeter. It cant stay in the ball path. If the bearing is packed full the grease has to go somewhere which means weeping past the seals. This is why industrial motors are limited to a few shots of grease per year. Too much and the excess is flung into the motor windings. In Steves case I can’t imagine even a few skits of grease on the brake rotor wouldn’t be cool
3rd member is a mechanical work of art. Gotta be rewarding to be an engineer these days. Even with all the high tech - crescent wrench and hand-packed bearings get the job done.
I've got to say the part i enjoyed most about this video was when you were looking at the rear end and suspension. Yes it's top shelf. You kind of took a pause for a second, kind of a moment of self realization. Yes Mr. Morris you made all that happen. And you earned it, congrats. Your are truly a good guy.
Many videos ago I commented that you needed to put the rear quarters on hinges or 1/4 turn fasteners so you didn't have to waste the time vacuuming out the air in your tires anymore... Look at you go, certainly going to be a game changer with time savings... Hopefully you go over kill with the quick releases to keep em on at your 230+ passes. Keep on posting these videos, it's great to see the way you learn and then show what you learn to us. Can't wait to see billet everything🤙
It is amazing, that that hub, and rotor assembly is held in place by a snap ring. I was taught the same way, to pack bearings. I am glad, everything, is Dewey approved. Have a good day.
Really cool to hear your appreciation and respect for the craftsmanship and engineering that has been put into the components of the wagon. I am sure it’s similar to people that have one of your engines. You have to respect the amount of engineering it takes to produce components that can take the stress everything is put under and survive. It really is awesome
I love that Steve hangs around the shop wondering how things work and fit and geeks out about how cool his car is! Fame and money aside, he's a normal car guy like the rest of us!
Yes he is. He owns that cool stuff because he WORKS FOR IT. Nobody gave Steve Morris nuth'n,, he's earned his status in the high performance automotive world. 🙂
The disc brake mounting setup is to allow the disc to grow in diameter as it heats up without distorting, the nuts allow the mounting tangs on the disc to slide outward radially. Floating disc.
Steve, I'd make the quarter panel removable seam behind the back doors in the wheel well area. That way you might consider having the seal lip for the door and part of the inner wheel well come off with the panel. This would give you more room for tire swap, and hide the removal seam behind the door. And I'd get some new wheel bearings. Is the inside bearing, outer seal exposed to the outside with no additional seal? If so, the grease from it could dump onto your brake rotors. That extra grease you put in could end up finding it's way onto your rear brakes.
Lock it grab impact remove all the studs then use new or push the bearings out and in then studs. The inserts are for the expansion differences of metals and the operating temps. That is what gets it done for a six second four thousand herspers WAGON.
Most of that grease will end up on the other side,that why you never pack both sides. Brand new bearing has solid grease all the way around on one side.
Steve Make yourself a dolly with a cradle to hold the tyre. Even if its an old small trolley jack. Slide it under, lift, push in and tyres on. You could even use those dolleys you use to move the car around the shop on with a screw scissor jack with a cradle on top to hold the tyre. You could then use a battery powerd wrench to lift the screw jack. Easy as pie and 20 mins of welding. If you make it nice you could produce them on the side and sell it with your merch......😂
Hi Steve, I love your videos! Just a bit of logic on the brake rotor floating on the hub with the slide nuts. The slots allow the rotor to expand as it heats under braking. It also allows the area touching the hub to be as small as possible to prevent heat transfer into the hub and bearings under heavy and continuous braking.
Always replace that type of wheel bearings if you remove them! It's almost impossible NOT to damage them when you extract them, because you can't get behind the outer race, and if you push on the inner race you will damage the balls or rollers. And/or the races...☹ Remember, any play in those bearings will be multiplied at the tire surface and could easily initiate tire shake at your power level...😉
What, and miss out on the original mechanic's hand softener? Someday, I'm gonna find a woman who thinks fresh long grain wheel bearing grease smells as sexy as I think it does...
Steve you might consider making a portable wheel dolly jack that allows you to lean the tire back a little bit to get the angle to roll it into place, have to say that wagon is sooo nice 👍 God Bless
If ya gonna use removable guard make your front edge of the removable guard inside the door recess so wind DOSENT get in behind and try to rip it off while on the drag race
Hi another time from me at Belgium ,I now these axles FF from the heavy duty’s landcruisers 73-75-78 60-62-80-82 types and the are available with al kind off dirff types and ratio,s stock material and never breaks eaten with big tyres and a lot of horses on those axles And very nice wheels that you have and I was working already withthose bead locks rims at those axles.
That moment when Steve is taking in how nice the rear end/whole car truly is. That was such a great thing to watch. I'm always in awe at how much money, sweat, work goes into making these cars go this fast and be reliable. Truly a car artist and pioneer. We're so lucky to have people document these things. Keep up the great videos Steve and crew!
I think those nuts for the brake rotor allow the rotor to grow when heat gets in it, and could potentially keep the rotors from cracking at the mounting point. I like that design.
Rotor plate is mounted with keyed nuts so it can expand out from the middle with braking force heat and not distort the assembly. Then as it cools it pulls back in.
Great educational video. Food for thought on being able to mount the tires easily would be to modify an ATV/Motorcycle lift like the ones that they have at Northern Tool.
interesting how they're sealed bearings, but indeed very simple setup. no need to preload bearings or anything and they aren't horribly spendy. keep some on hand and a good set of punches and you can do a bearing change pretty fast
Weigh out to the mfg. spec's for greasing. The bearings will run cooler and last longer. Also, clean them before greasing. All that old grease contains the metallics from wear, and now all the contaminates are in your fresh grease.
I believe some of the reasoning behind the floating design of the rotor with those slider nuts is for thermal expansion and contraction. Those rotors get red hot and the metal would fail if it was directly mounted where the mounting points couldn't expand with the rest of the rotor.
I think there's several reasons for why the rotor is "floating" and has the ability to slide a little, and one of them is probably so when she get's really toasty it has room to grow otherwise it would warp I imagine. Crazy to think the temperature sweep that thing sees in like 10 seconds (ambient temp up to 4 figures of temp, then back down) I bet it grows and shrinks relatively quickly.
BTW the rotor should "rattle" on the mounting lugs when everything is tightened up. If if doesn't, there is a problem. Burr, glop in between the lug and the slot, etc.
Brake assemble, bobbets are the floater spacers. The nuts are one time use aircraft nuts and have to be torqued to a spec. to not bind rotor on hub ( arround 17inlb). I don't know of a thread lock that works near 800 -1000 f. Spline thing is a drive plate.
I personally like the design of the rotor bolt 'collar' pieces. I have a hunch it wouldn't be as hard of a metal as the rotor. Have a good weekend Steve!
With all the pressure on those bearings, I agree you need to maybe repack them once a year? I too use the palm of the hand grease packing theory. Been working for over 60 years so I don't plan on changing anytime soon.
You need a "Dewey Approved" line of t-shirts. Picture of The Wagon, Sugar Momma or an SMX with a little pic of Dewey's head and the caption "Dewey Approved". That dog it so cool.
I tip i learned from a oldtimer, he used to take a tyre pencil or something similar and paint a straight line on new driveaxles and use it to see when the axles needed to to be replaced. when the line was like 3/4 of a turn he got new ones..sure material and length determines the amount of twist each can handle before snapping. also fun to see what abuse they get to take. /Cheers from Sweden.
I had the first generation of that small impact from them and it just failed last year. The tool didn’t even break. It was the battery, and they don’t make replacements for them anymore. I’ve had it since 2009.
Once you're done and have it on the ground and drive some road miles with it making turns and such make sure you check the inside and outside sidewalls because I put 20 in on my car and had clearances like you do and under driving on the roads going around turns the inner side wall ended up just grazing the chassis
@Steve Morris Engines Steve, you might want to think about making a simple 2 wheel seesaw type tyre lifter that cradles the tyre with 2 ratchet straps on the ends of 2 short bent quarter U shape flat bars that can swivel horizontally clockwise & anti-clockwise. That way when you change wheels before & after events it will be very easy on your body as it ages. Mark
Like the others said, not only was that too much grease in the bearings, but if you were banging on the inner race with that punch to get it out of there and they were roller balls in there, then it’s possible you’ve dimpled either/and/or the balls and races.
Back when I used to have a mud drag truck. Nothing super powerful it was about 500-600hp when ever I put a new axle in I would put a chalk line down the axle and at the end of the season if I didn’t break it I would pull it out and sometimes the axle would twist enough that the chalk line would wrap around the axle at least one time. That would also tell me it’s time to change the axle shaft as it’s about to snap anyways.
Steve, your genuine personality and passion for what you’re famous for comes through. I just want to applaud your style. That said… I love your content and how well you educate your viewers. I can even keep my wife engaged (Dewy helps enormously!) which is a bonus, because we’re both dog lovers. I know this is not relevant to your subject matter, but if it helps your algorithm, 👍🏼 Always enjoy seeing the end result, the hp gains the expert craftsmanship… Please keep up the good work. Hoping to see the Wagon 2.0 back at it!
Put the new Quarter in place welded. Cut out tire area and get fender flare kit for large tire. You can get them for like 180.00 and will still make the car look nice and make it so you can get the Wheel/tire off
Steve. I could be wrong. But I believe those are sealed bearing. Should not be regressed or at least that kind of grease. Could be wrong. But. Need to call Mark Willams for SURE on that
@@jeffreystroman2811 55 years later, I’m still in contact with a few surviving classmates and we agree that we received a quality education from some exceptional people.
In the industrial world we run sealed bearings on blowers and motors at 1800 and 3600 rpm 24 hours a day. Just make note of bearing number and carry a set and maybe a hub as one of the most common issues we see is out race to hub clearance issues from fitment problems. Be very careful and not over pack sealed bearings (there are specs out there) you can overheating in the bearing and seals with push out. Think about it you did not see any grease outside the bearing in the hub so they did not loss any. Sealed bearings are a different animal versus open.
I have never seen anyone repack a rear floater bearing. The bearing usually makes a noise when you do go bad. In my experience not often. 500k miles on my tow rig and they are still good.
Ive work in heavy industry since i was 19, mines, steel plant, saw mill etc and i get pretty jaded seeing massive pumps, turbines, crushers etc. Seeing that tiny little shaft come out of the rear end (yes i laughed typing that)knowing it handles all the power from that engine, truly puts into perspective how powerful the stuff i work with really is. Like a 2ft diameter pinion to drive a SAG mill etc. Absolutley wild
i had an argument years ago about gun drilled axels. i thought it was done to stop a crack from forming at the center of the axel making them a little more ductile . and the other person said it was only for weight
True testament to hard work and dedication pays off in many ways. Growing and learning. Everybody's RU-vid's are different and I for one and many I'm sure are glad you do what you do for everyone. It's cool as hell to see and learn off what you do. Good or bad. Still learning.
