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Rear Hub Bearing Lubrication

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M

manager

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Replaced the rear hub bearing and seal on my 1966 3000. Does the rear hub bearing come pre-packed with grease or does it get lubed from differential oil?

I'm getting both answers and just wanted to make sure. I did not pack it and may have to re-do. Got it from Moss. Thanks.
 
Differential oil. Packed-in grease would get washed out in no time (50 years owning at least one Healey and I've never heard anyone recommend packing grease, but putting a light smear on the seal contact edge can't hurt). Be sure to check your diff oil level; you should have had some dribble out when you pulled the hub.
 
Bob_Spidell said:
Differential oil. Packed-in grease would get washed out in no time (50 years owning at least one Healey and I've never heard anyone recommend packing grease, but putting a light smear on the seal contact edge can't hurt). Be sure to check your diff oil level; you should have had some dribble out when you pulled the hub.
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Bob_Spidell said:
Differential oil. Packed-in grease would get washed out in no time (50 years owning at least one Healey and I've never heard anyone recommend packing grease, but putting a light smear on the seal contact edge can't hurt). Be sure to check your diff oil level; you should have had some dribble out when you pulled the hub.
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Thanks Bob..I did treat the seal with grease but was wondering how the gear oil makes it past the seal to the bearing thats all.
 
manager said:
Thanks Bob..I did treat the seal with grease but was wondering how the gear oil makes it past the seal to the bearing thats all.
Click to expand...
The gear oil flows between the axle shaft and the axle housing. Does a 180 at the end of the axle shaft and heads to the outboard side of bearing. The oil seal is on the inboard side of the bearing.
 
Though an axle seal can go bad often the leak is due to a worn or pitted axle shaft in which case the leak will persist even after a new seal is installed.

I have never had any leaks from my 100, but I have had a number of them on two of my race cars--an Elva Courier and a Ginetta G4--both of which use Spridget rears which are identical in concept to those in our Big Healeys, just smaller. The simple solution is to resleeve the hub with a Speedi-Sleeve or like product which can be found at a good auto parts store.

There are a few tricks, the first being to throw away the seating tool that comes with the sleeve and find a piece of pipe or a socket which is deep enough to drive the sleeve home against the inner side of the hub. The second is to put a small nick in the circumference of the disposable shoulder of the sleeve before installing it to make it easier to grab the shoulder with a needle-nose and pull it away--versus having to do it with a cold chisel after the sleeve is seated, which can be tricky.

I'd recommend watching this video (
) as the fellow covers the sleeve installation very well and coincidentally he is doing it upon a racing Spridget! The fact that he has a double-bearing hub--as did I--is unimportant as the source of the leak is not at the bearing(s) but rather at where the seal rides upon the axle shaft.

Good luck!
 
While we're (sorta) on the topic, I'll mention that spun rear hub bearings is a potential issue as well. Tom Monaco of Tom's Import Toys--a reliable parts supplier BTW (NFI)--told me he'd replaced [insert large number; I forget exactly] spun rear bearings over the years. I believe the cause is improper or non-use of the spacer which clamps the bearing's outer/inner(?) race against the axle disk. Also, it's known that a too thick paper gasket will preclude proper sealing at this joint, causing a diff oil leak (much discussed elsewhere on this forum).
 
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