Possible spindle/hub/wheel bearing damage
 

So here I am again, doing my part to populate the tech section. ;)

I decided to take apart my hub while redoing the whole front, might as well, right? Anyways, I found some discouraging things. There appears to be burning on the spindle, rusty grease, and some wear on the hub (if you can see it in the last picture).

Is this stuff alright to reuse?

Also, there's some wear on the washer/nut.

I'd scuff the spindle up with some emery cloth or ~240grit sandpaper and take the bluing off. Never seen one heated up like that :) Should be alright htough.

Hub looks cool, but i'd definetley change the races.

Races? Ugh... that doesn't look like a fun job. I've already got new bearings on order.

It's hard to tell if it's damage or dried grease or something else???
Clean everything up and retake the pics...
I've never seen brown grease before.
The bearing looks like it was sitting in rusty water!


-Ted

The only other thing you could do is "mic" the races and spindle and see if the measurments are in spec. That is if you are really anal and have access to a micrometer or other measuring device. So get rid of the brown grease and corrosion and see how they look.

I cleaned everything with Simple Green, with the exception of down in the hub. I'll try scrubbing it harder and I'll also take something slightly abrasive to it and see what's up. It didn't seem to be dried grease though. :dunno:

Only the grease around the top bearing (pictured) was like that. The grease down in the hub was black.

The grease in my hub that fragged a bearing looked like that, except your hub and spindle look actually very good. Mine were destroyed when the grease failed and the bearing ate itself.

Looks like you prevented a potential failure. Score!

I went to NAPA and the races are like $3 each so I'm pretty pleased about that.

The new bearings should come with new races.

They did. New bearings/races were like ~$55. I'll have to get 2 seals which are about $9 each. Overall, not bad.