KDXRIDER.NET

PhilJensen wrote:

Indawoods wrote:It's a nice write up but I don't see any real application... except maybe Military where it had to be in service at all times. Let's hope that don't happen!

I'm not in the military, but my bike is in service all summer ;)

Doesn't everyone else ride every single free day they have in the spring/summer/fall? We do.

Phil

Honestly? No... I have a life with my children, and have other interests besides riding. But I always end up tinkering with my bike when I'm not riding. Maintaining my bike is fun... maybe that's weird or something but I enjoy it.

Tinker? Oh yes, I am a tinkerer! When it's cold and rainy I have been caught sitting next to my bike with a can of WD in my hand... (wait, wrong thread). I most certainly do enjoy tinkering.

Hello, I just found this site, and it looks interesting. I'm the guy that did the writeup you are discussing.

I guess I'll throw a little fuel on the fire of zerks vs. no zerks (even though I wanted to stay out of it ).

When you grease the bearings by hand, you cannot completely fill all the voids around the bearings and between the seals with grease, it is impossible.

Do you know what these voids WILL fill with? Think about it a little.

HB

Um.... AIR!?

Seems to me with a zerk the grease is gonna go where there is least resistance, which may or may not be where you want it too

I would imagine that unless you pump and pump, the greased area would only partly fill with new grease (the old grease is going to mix with new grease, so it is like diluting the new grease with some old). When I do it by hand, it is all new grease. Topping it off with a zerk is OK, but some folks try to use them as their only method to apply grease.

When you grease the bearings by hand, you cannot completely fill all the voids around the bearings and between the seals with grease, it is impossible

Simply not true. Zerks do exactly as Wibby stated, grease goes to least resistance. On tie rods, ball joints, idler arms wich have no balls or needles ( these are more like bushings) it is fine. Even in these grease will skirt around dried up old grease and not push it out. Wheel bearings in cars would have zerks if they thought it would work. I too had toyed with this idea. But after tearing everything apart I saw how easy it is to do and I know that the bearing is full. 1 hour twice a year is what I figure. And the piece-o-mind that I saw the grease go where it was supposed go.

Sorry so long to reply.......

I am not saying you never need to take things apart and inspect/maintain, I'm sorry if I gave that impression.

Also, I thoroughly cleaned AND PACKED my new bearings by hand before assembly.

Here's some more of my thoughts on the subject (whatever that's worth).

LUBRICATION is NOT the reason I did this mod. I think that new, fresh grease is much LESS important than keeping contaminates (water, grit, etc) away from the bearings.

I shot a 1/2 tube of grease into my parts AFTER I had packed them by hand, those voids are what allows stuff to intrude past the seals and get to the bearings, in fact the seals HOLD the junk inside and won't let it out.

If the voids are sealed up the junk has much less place to intrude.

The most important void (about 1-2mm) is the space between the bearing and seal, if anything gets past the rubber seal that layer of grease will catch it first. My system actually adds another seal (grease) behind the rubber seal.

How do you pack that area by hand so that it totally seals around the shaft/sleeve? You can't. And even if you could, you have voids inside that would allow the grease to migrate away from the shaft/seal junction, compromising the add'l grease seal around the shaft.

Note that my grease path will flush this area every time I pump a little grease in, taking trash out with it. AND I can see if any junk comes out (also notifying me that the rubber seal has been compromised).

The rubber seal will also last longer with grease in continuous contact with the sealing lip.

Have you ever pulled your rear wheel axle out, laid your wheel down and water runs out the axle hole? When the water gets past the axle seal & past the bearing it sits in the void and slowly ruins/rusts the wheel bearings. If the void was full of grease the water cannot sit on the back of the bearing. Same principle as the above.

I've talked too much, sorry so long, but sometimes my 2 cents worth turns into a quarter

HB

How about them trailblazers? ;)

I made three posts on that site and was actually banned.... Not cool.

They kept deleting my questions, and I finally posted that the site was retarded and I was going back to KDXrider where they weren't retarded. Result: BANNED!

James