The brakes on my bumper pull toy hauler required a setting of Medium 6.5 on my controller when I first towed it with my F-350, about four years ago.. This last trip, I had to crank that up to Medium 8.0 to feel that the trailer brakes were doing their part. While changing a tire on the trip, one of the wheel bearings felt a little loose. So I'm going to be doing brakes and bearings soon.

 

when doing the bearings, it is always good to check the races and the bearing itself for scarring and heat spots.

For bearings, check the side play in the bearing and rollers, any thing excessive, replace.

 

I got a little more than 3/4 Of everything done yesterday. I could have had it all done but I screwed up a grease seal so I’m stuck not being able to finish until tomorrow, or possibly later today if I can find a store open that has a seal.

a quick shout out to RV Tech for helping me with wiring the new brakes. I couldn’t figure out how the trailer was wired since all the wires going to the brakes were white. Normally I can trace them out and figure it out anyway but this one just had me baffled. So I sent him a PM and he confirmed that the polarity of the magnet doesn’t matter and the the wires can go either way. That is to say that you can’t do it wrong, so just splice them together and you are good.

one of the biggest challenges was getting the brakes set right from the get go. These are the self adjusting brakes so they kind of have them set up so that you can’t really adjust them through the backing plates. You can but they make it somewhat difficult.

so I invented a method that worked pretty good for me. With the backing plates mounted and the hubs and bearings cleaned out and dry, I put the rear bearing on the spindle and then slipped the drum on the brakes and bearing and seated it back as far as it would go, then spun the drum a few times in both directions to center the shoes. Then it was a matter of pulling the drum off, tightening the adjuster and refitting the drum and sneak up on a setting that would provide a slight drag with the shoes but still let you get the drum on and off.

the with the shoes set, you can pull the rear bearing off the spindle and repack the bearings like normal.

so that’s where I’m at.

all the bearings looked good I thought, so I just cleaned them up and repacked and reset everting. I couldn’t find any indication that there was any problems with them. Races were all smooth with no discoloration, and I couldn’t find any rollers that looked bad in any way. I’m sure they are all fine. None of them were dry, even if the grease was about done the bearings looked fine.

I considered having the drums turned, but the wearing surfaces all looked pretty good. No grooves or pitting, so for trailer brakes I didn’t see the need. They get rusty anyway just sitting so getting them back to pristine wouldn’t have done much for us.

most likely this is the last time I’ll have to do anything with the brakes. And I doubt I’ll do anything with the bearings until it needs tires. So I should be good for 5-8 years until I decide that the tires shouldn’t be trusted anymore.

 

If I may tag onto the end of this thread- I typically pull my travel trailer hubs, repack the bearings and inspect brakes each spring (3500 pound axles). This year, I had 2 bearings that were suspect. One had a single score line on each roller at the same location. The other had some discoloration. I looked online for some help as to whether or not these bearings could be reused, but really couldn't find any good info. Since I tend to be a little OCD, I just replaced them rather than take the risk of them going bad on the road. All this to ask: what are the guidelines for any defect in a bearing to be reused? Do you replace a bearing with any defect, or is there an allowable amount? Thanks.

 

Any tips for NOT screwing up the grease seal?

 

I use brass punch when removing the seal. Tap around the entire surface area. Best I can say.

 

I can't remember the last time I had to do a grease/oil seal in anything. I'm sure I did one once, but it's been a long time.

 

I have never had luck removing a rear seal without destroying it. I always keep extras on hand for that very reason.

 

It's not the removing that I'm worried about. I'm planning to buy all new seals. It's the installing that worries me. I'll need to get YouTube certified on seal installation.

 

I got the hint some guys were talking about reusing seals which I never do. For installing, especially bigger seals like for crankshaft seals, I turn the old seal around backwards as protection for the new seal when tapping into place. This helps distribute the force and helps drive the new seal more evenly. For small seals I often use a seal driver.

 

a seal installation tool is the best, but it has to be the right size. That’s how I screwed up. I bought the correct tool but the diameter was smaller than the seal so I ended up driving it crooked and got the one side too deep. I had zero luck lifting it back up without ruining it so I just removed it and reinstalled a new one.

o have pretty good luck driving them in with just a regular hammer tapping evenly around the rim. Now that I have the tool, I did use it to go around the rim and drive it flush all the way around. I just couldn’t go in the middle, I had to go around the outside with the tool in a circular pattern. But doing that got them perfect.


I’ve also had good luck with just a scrap of 2x4. Once you get it started, put the 2x4 flat over the seal and drive it home. It would be best to start it square with the board but I’ve not had much luck getting them started that way.

i usually don’t have any real trouble installing them, but this time I was trying something new with my shiny new tool and it bit me in the butt.

 

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the advice.

 

for years, I have always just used a brass punch and light tap the seal in. Matter of fact I am good enough I am using old seals the last four years. The seals are in great shape and without hard or dry spots.

That brass punch is the key to a lot of this since the metal is soft.

Otherwise a socket of the same size can work well too.

 

The hammer and 2x4 method has worked well for me for many years. Just tap gently the first couple of times to get it started - once you see it's lined up properly a couple good whacks and your done. I do have Bearing/Race driver set but for the grease seal itself the 2x4 fits every time.

 

A race and seal installer set is what I use. The 2x4 method works as well but it will do you no good if you need to drive in a new race.