Seals and lube
 

I have a 96’ F250 with a 10.25 rear end (full floating axles). I am putting new rear wheel bearings in it and have a couple questions;
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It has a sheet metal piece with four tabs that stick out (most of which have been worn off). I believe that this is an oil slinger that was part of the seal kit. If I put a new SKF/Chicago Rawhide Scotseal in it, do I discard the slinger?
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Do you guys normally pack the bearings with grease or just oil them? I have read some things that say to pack them, but I never did years ago when I did maintenance on larger work trucks (we just oiled them) and we didn’t have any problems. :confused:

Anybody?

I think that I will just leave the oil slinger piece out since they are worn to the point that they probably wouldn't do much anyway.

I pack the bearings to be sure they get sufficient lube until the gear lube itself gets out to them refilling the hub again.

I see no slinger in the diagrams, could you post a picture of what you're talking about and show a link to the seal kit you have. I'd like to see what you refer to, haven't had one apart in a while and forget whats all in there. I do not recall any slinger or any need for one once the hub is full of grease. But I may not remember it right either.

I did go ahead and pack the bearings with grease, I figured better safe than sorry.

I left the slinger out. It was just a flat sheetmetal part that was located inbetween the inside bearing and the seal. It was about the diameter of the outer race and it had four little tabs that were supposed to hold it centered around the inside race that were pretty much worn off. The more I thought about it, the more I decided that they were a pretty hoaky design and a source for metal shavings. I left them out.

The seals that I used;

http://www.skf.com/files/005056.pdf

"Patented Waveseal design continually sweeps oil back to the bearings."