Hot Hub

[dlandersson]

Seriously nice post.

Hubs can be warm but they should never be hot. If they are hot there is something wrong.

[Be Free]

Thank you. I made it myself.

[OverEasy]

Hubs can be warm but they should never be hot. If they are hot there is something wrong.

Bearing Buddys (and their generic offspring) are not a substitute for proper servicing. You still need to take that hub apart and repack the bearing. You need to check the bearing and spindle for rust and pitting. It's much better to deal with a small problem in your driveway than have a failure of any size on the highway..

We went through a hub/bearing/spindle failure last year when bringing Over Easy down south around Thanksgiving time. Not nice. Not pretty. Fairly expensive. Unplanned extended “vacation”… We were fortunate that while it cost a new axle and hubs and brake assemblies nothing catastrophic happened… only serendipity averted disaster for us and potentially others. And we checked our bearing at every gas stop along with tire pressure. Not hot. Not under inflated. We had the all bearing re-lubed professionally the prior season. We checked for proper tire rotation and brake drag.

So what went wrong???
There wasn’t enough of the failed bearing, hub or spindle to know for certain.
But when it did fail it cooked off nearly all the grease.

So the gist of this silique is a bearing can fail even if you try to do everything right.
But if you’re lucky and fortunate enough to get a warning sign like a hot bearing take advantage of it! Tear it down to find out why before it fails catastrophically… getting inconvenienced and greasy in one’s own driveway is one thing as greasy washes off… having an on the road traveling incident is a lot more problematic.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

[kmclemore]

Fixed the title, for future searches.

[NiceAft]

Update.

Today I picked up NiceAft from the boat mechanic. I asked about what was actually done. I was told that while the wheel was off, they did indeed check the calipers. He said everything checked out. When I got home (13 mile stop and go trip), the hub was warm; very comfortable to touch.

Kevin, we will still will make plans for after the 25th.

[Jimmyt]

My worst nightmare - a problem that won’t stay broke long enough for me to find it and fix it.

[NiceAft]

My worst nightmare - a problem that won’t stay broke long enough for me to find it and fix it.

Thanks for now keeping me up at night

[Jimmyt]

You’re probably fine. Caliper May have stopped ‘floating’ or the piston might have had some crud on it. After you exercised it a bit, it corrected itself.

I was mostly just pulling your leg.

[kmclemore]

Sounds like a stuck caliper. I’ll take a good look at it when we get together.

[Highlander]

Ray

#1 a hot hub could be a brake sticking on or slow to release

#2 it could also b because one brake is seized in the off position "think seized caliper piston" so now the other working brake is overheating because it's doing the work of both

#3 brake calipers have three rubber boots one on the caliper piston & one each on the two caliper guide pin bolts if one or more of these crack due to age or salt & allow water ingress corrosion will take over in due time & cause #1 or #2 issue,s

#4 If a brake lining separate's from a brake shoe or pad it can jam between the brake drum & shoe or brake pad & rotor causing overheating untill it,s burned off then u have brake shoe & drum or brake pad & rotor steel on steel

#5 If u r not over greasing ur hubs & have grease splatter on ur inner wheel rim u likely have a inner hub wheel seal starting to fail & should replace it as soon as poss & clean the bearings & check for water damage & wear on the bearing cups & races, if u have grease splatter on both ur inner & outer wheel rim then u likely have a total wheel seal failure either of these issue's can b caused by an ageing wheel , loose wheel bearing , road debri like a plastic bag , a length of rope or wire wrapping itself around the spindle & inner hub & damaging the inner wheal seal or a hard object of any kind hitting the axle or wheel & being redirected into the wheel seal I,ve seen all of these scenarios happen over the yrs

#6 an accident like severely striking a road curb causing a bent spindle will cause these issue's as well

#7 the biggest cause of a worn out spindle or wheel hub is usually loose or over torqued wheel bearing or total wheel seal failure leading to total wheel bearing race collapse which usually leads to loosing a wheel & hub if u don't get off the road fast enough

[Lucky Drifter]

We did have hot brakes that would smoke all the way home but our mechanic did a permanent fix he had the slave cylinders reamed & lined with stainless steel, been good ever since cheers Len

[NiceAft]

(1st) Thanks to all for advise.
(2nd) I don’t know if anyone has closely paid attention to where the advise is coming from.

The beauty of this site is its worldwide web of terrific Mac owners. I have received post from all around the U.S., along with Canada, Switzerland and Australia. I am proud to be a Mac owner and a board member of this site.

These posts are not just to me, but anyone who does research tomorrow, the next day and beyond.

[Highlander]

Ray
When I overhauled my trl disc brakes in 2016 before I flew my trk & mac over the Rockies to Vancouver Isl BC , documented the overhaul with pic,s & all I thought I had posted it on here but dammed if I can find it
If I did maybe Russ can find it ? , I,ve searched thru three hard drives to no avail ! , so I have 4 other hard drives stored on a external hard drive so gonna take me a while too search thru them if I did not accidently delete them at some point

So if I do find them I,ll post them on here

J

[Highlander]

BTW Ray

When I first seen this post I thought it said Hot Tub
so I said to myself well this should b very interesting reading

I was so disappointed once I realized my mistake as I figured this is gonna b funny likely lost his drawers gettin outa the tub

J

[C Buchs]

When I first seen this post I thought it said Hot Tub

You're not the only one who read it that way!

Jeff