I got to meet and talk with a lot of great people during this ordeal. The boys at 65 Motor Shop in Harrison, AR. The tech at LCI that helped me get the correct axle. The nice folks at Harrison Village Campground that accommodated our uncertain schedule.
The chain support for the missing wheel worked well for the 4 miles I had to drive it like that. I certainly would not want to go much further that way.
Getting the parts. Axle, hub, bearings, seals. Nobody carries axles in stock for my Momentum. So that leaves two sources, Dexter and Lippert (LCI). Dexter has many distributors, LCI not so many. I really looked at getting a Dexter Axle, thinking I could drive to nearby cities and pick it up and bring it back and be on the road, nope. However, Dexter could make an axle to match the LCI one and would only take about 4 weeks to get it. Sigh. Lippert took the numbers from my axle label and created a new axle for me and got it shipped in 10 days. Yea. But there was a minor hitch I will explain in the repair part of the story.
Hub, Performance Trailer said they could get a new hub to me quickly + shipping. But I shopped around a bit and found E-Trailer to have the hub cheaper and free shipping. That was easy.
Bearings – I will admit to being a bigot. I prefer US made steel over Chinese made steel. So I went to NAPA to order Timken bearings, got all new bearings and races for all 6 wheels, $500. When I went to pick them up they had SKF bearings. I could never nail down whether they were better or worse than Timkens, so I went with the bird in hand.
Seals were easy.
Parts are on order so we made the best of the wait. Went to Branson and saw some shows. Road the Buffalo National River on our Kayaks. Motorcyled around the Arkansas mountain roads. Fished the tail waters of Bull Shoals dam in a trophy trout section of the White River (got skunked).
Parts all arrive. Repair is scheduled. Limp into the shop and lift the trailer up on the level up system, set jacks. First problem, getting the hub off past the welded castle nut and broken bearings. They brought out Big Bertha, a one inch impact wrench they use on big truck nuts. It struggled but eventually ripped the castle nut off. The outside bearing is the one that failed. The inside race of that bearing was stuck on the spindle and couldn't be pulled off. I brought out my diamond blade grinder and we used that to cut it and then still had to chisel of off, ok hub is off.
Unbolted the U-bolts and dropped the axle. Hauled into the shop next to the new axle. The tech says “I think we have a problem!” . You never want to hear that. Ok, what? The new axle has six bolts on the brake plate and the old axle has 5. Now we have a crowd, the other mechanics came over to look. One said, turn it over, we did. Aha, they matched, 5 bolts on both. You can't make this stuff up. But after all the time and effort to get things ordered it certainly got my heart rate up a bit.
I pull the new hub out of the box. Hmmm! No dust cap, or in this hubs case, no oil cap. The old one had melted. Yes you can order them and they will be here in two days, but the repair is being done right now. I searched around town and found a parts store that carries Oil Caps for Lippert Axles, long shot, but it was the correct one. I left to go get it. When I came back the tech was sitting informed me that the studs holding the brake plates on were to short. Visions of more delays swam through my head.
Lesson learned: When ordering a new axle determine if new brake plates are needed also. Brake plates are bolted on to the axle and hold the disk brake calipers in place.
The tech told me he could drive the old bolts off the old axle and re-use them, but they wouldn't be new. I said proceed.
The new hub had a new race in it. Yea!. The tech told me they didn't have a press to put a new race in the other hub, that he inspected it and could not find any flaws. So we discussed briefly the risk factors of using the old race versus the possibility that he could not get a new race properly seated. If I lived in a perfect world I would be at a facility that had all the proper equipment and expertise. But sometimes you have to take what you can get.
After that discussion I decided to forgo my decision to replace all the other bearings. Back to “if it aint broke, don't fix it”. New axle installed I opted to put all new u-bolts on it. The plates that came with the u-bolt set did not match, so used the old plates. A little rusty but appeared sound.
We pulled the wheels off of the other hubs and inspected the bearings. When we went to remove one of the oil caps it broke off. Hmmm! Anyone have any idea what would cause those thick plastic oil caps to break? I couldn't figure it out. Luckily, when I found the oil cap at a parts store I bought two.
Readjusted the tension on the castle nut and lubed. One of the castle nuts was really loose. Another oil cap was cracked and appeared to be leaking grease, very slight, but needs to be replaced. All back together now, paid the bill. Parts and labor came to just around $1500. Two weeks delay. $300 in lost reservations. New rule, if they don't have a refund policy don't make long term reservations.
So why the long story? It goes back to my grade school teacher explaining why there is no such thing as a stupid question. While it may be obvious to most people, there are some others sitting next to you that will have the same question you do. So if this narrative helps another rv'er understand the steps to getting a bad bearing repaired it is worth the effort.
Now for the lessons learned.
When deciding if a bad bearing can just be fixed, or if more repairs are needed, it's a good idea to remove the bad bearing and inspect the spindle before you proceed.
If you have to order a new axle, know that they usually come as an axle set, including new hubs and bearings assembled at the factory. In my case I had a disk brake upgrade using Kodiak brakes. While it was great the LCI guy understood this a ordered me just the axle tube, I didn't know enough to talk about the brake plates that come with the axle, so ended up with the too short stud problem on the brake plate mounting.
When ordering a new hub don't forget the oil cap/dust cover.
When deciding on what grease to use find one that has a high drop point and is sold nationally. Don't mix grease types, sometimes they fight with each other.
Castle nut tension is probably the most important part of any bearing install/service. To tight the bearings bind and overheat, too loose and the slop destroys the bearings causing failure.
After the installation I drove 80 miles to my next destination. I stopped and checked hub temps twice. Ok, I am a little paranoid at this time. After my winter bearing repack the hubs were running 95-120f when checked. All through FL, GA, and TN, 95-120f. So I stopped checking, thought I was good. Somewhere in the run from Memphis to Harrison I had a bearing fail. When I stopped for fuel in Harrison that wheel was smoking. Had I checked it along that last run when we made potty stops I would have caught it earlier and probably just have a simple bearing replacement.
Checking the temps on my 80 mile run they are running around 120-140, except for the middle right hub, it was 180f. While the higher temps are disconcerting, I know they are not too hot. Another bearing replacement I had years ago the new bearings were running around 300f, but after several hundred miles seated and then cooled down.
Last lesson, after putting the castle nut back on, stop in a few hundred miles and check them. This is a royal pain to do in the field, but a really good preventative maintenance step to take.
The chain support for the missing wheel worked well for the 4 miles I had to drive it like that. I certainly would not want to go much further that way.
Getting the parts. Axle, hub, bearings, seals. Nobody carries axles in stock for my Momentum. So that leaves two sources, Dexter and Lippert (LCI). Dexter has many distributors, LCI not so many. I really looked at getting a Dexter Axle, thinking I could drive to nearby cities and pick it up and bring it back and be on the road, nope. However, Dexter could make an axle to match the LCI one and would only take about 4 weeks to get it. Sigh. Lippert took the numbers from my axle label and created a new axle for me and got it shipped in 10 days. Yea. But there was a minor hitch I will explain in the repair part of the story.
Hub, Performance Trailer said they could get a new hub to me quickly + shipping. But I shopped around a bit and found E-Trailer to have the hub cheaper and free shipping. That was easy.
Bearings – I will admit to being a bigot. I prefer US made steel over Chinese made steel. So I went to NAPA to order Timken bearings, got all new bearings and races for all 6 wheels, $500. When I went to pick them up they had SKF bearings. I could never nail down whether they were better or worse than Timkens, so I went with the bird in hand.
Seals were easy.
Parts are on order so we made the best of the wait. Went to Branson and saw some shows. Road the Buffalo National River on our Kayaks. Motorcyled around the Arkansas mountain roads. Fished the tail waters of Bull Shoals dam in a trophy trout section of the White River (got skunked).
Parts all arrive. Repair is scheduled. Limp into the shop and lift the trailer up on the level up system, set jacks. First problem, getting the hub off past the welded castle nut and broken bearings. They brought out Big Bertha, a one inch impact wrench they use on big truck nuts. It struggled but eventually ripped the castle nut off. The outside bearing is the one that failed. The inside race of that bearing was stuck on the spindle and couldn't be pulled off. I brought out my diamond blade grinder and we used that to cut it and then still had to chisel of off, ok hub is off.
Unbolted the U-bolts and dropped the axle. Hauled into the shop next to the new axle. The tech says “I think we have a problem!” . You never want to hear that. Ok, what? The new axle has six bolts on the brake plate and the old axle has 5. Now we have a crowd, the other mechanics came over to look. One said, turn it over, we did. Aha, they matched, 5 bolts on both. You can't make this stuff up. But after all the time and effort to get things ordered it certainly got my heart rate up a bit.
I pull the new hub out of the box. Hmmm! No dust cap, or in this hubs case, no oil cap. The old one had melted. Yes you can order them and they will be here in two days, but the repair is being done right now. I searched around town and found a parts store that carries Oil Caps for Lippert Axles, long shot, but it was the correct one. I left to go get it. When I came back the tech was sitting informed me that the studs holding the brake plates on were to short. Visions of more delays swam through my head.
Lesson learned: When ordering a new axle determine if new brake plates are needed also. Brake plates are bolted on to the axle and hold the disk brake calipers in place.
The tech told me he could drive the old bolts off the old axle and re-use them, but they wouldn't be new. I said proceed.
The new hub had a new race in it. Yea!. The tech told me they didn't have a press to put a new race in the other hub, that he inspected it and could not find any flaws. So we discussed briefly the risk factors of using the old race versus the possibility that he could not get a new race properly seated. If I lived in a perfect world I would be at a facility that had all the proper equipment and expertise. But sometimes you have to take what you can get.
After that discussion I decided to forgo my decision to replace all the other bearings. Back to “if it aint broke, don't fix it”. New axle installed I opted to put all new u-bolts on it. The plates that came with the u-bolt set did not match, so used the old plates. A little rusty but appeared sound.
We pulled the wheels off of the other hubs and inspected the bearings. When we went to remove one of the oil caps it broke off. Hmmm! Anyone have any idea what would cause those thick plastic oil caps to break? I couldn't figure it out. Luckily, when I found the oil cap at a parts store I bought two.
Readjusted the tension on the castle nut and lubed. One of the castle nuts was really loose. Another oil cap was cracked and appeared to be leaking grease, very slight, but needs to be replaced. All back together now, paid the bill. Parts and labor came to just around $1500. Two weeks delay. $300 in lost reservations. New rule, if they don't have a refund policy don't make long term reservations.
So why the long story? It goes back to my grade school teacher explaining why there is no such thing as a stupid question. While it may be obvious to most people, there are some others sitting next to you that will have the same question you do. So if this narrative helps another rv'er understand the steps to getting a bad bearing repaired it is worth the effort.
Now for the lessons learned.
When deciding if a bad bearing can just be fixed, or if more repairs are needed, it's a good idea to remove the bad bearing and inspect the spindle before you proceed.
If you have to order a new axle, know that they usually come as an axle set, including new hubs and bearings assembled at the factory. In my case I had a disk brake upgrade using Kodiak brakes. While it was great the LCI guy understood this a ordered me just the axle tube, I didn't know enough to talk about the brake plates that come with the axle, so ended up with the too short stud problem on the brake plate mounting.
When ordering a new hub don't forget the oil cap/dust cover.
When deciding on what grease to use find one that has a high drop point and is sold nationally. Don't mix grease types, sometimes they fight with each other.
Castle nut tension is probably the most important part of any bearing install/service. To tight the bearings bind and overheat, too loose and the slop destroys the bearings causing failure.
After the installation I drove 80 miles to my next destination. I stopped and checked hub temps twice. Ok, I am a little paranoid at this time. After my winter bearing repack the hubs were running 95-120f when checked. All through FL, GA, and TN, 95-120f. So I stopped checking, thought I was good. Somewhere in the run from Memphis to Harrison I had a bearing fail. When I stopped for fuel in Harrison that wheel was smoking. Had I checked it along that last run when we made potty stops I would have caught it earlier and probably just have a simple bearing replacement.
Checking the temps on my 80 mile run they are running around 120-140, except for the middle right hub, it was 180f. While the higher temps are disconcerting, I know they are not too hot. Another bearing replacement I had years ago the new bearings were running around 300f, but after several hundred miles seated and then cooled down.
Last lesson, after putting the castle nut back on, stop in a few hundred miles and check them. This is a royal pain to do in the field, but a really good preventative maintenance step to take.
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