Front Axle Oiled Bearing Cap

[Dick Simonis]

Our 2000 PT has oiled front bearings but the plastic caps that show the oil level have darkened to the point that the oil level can not be seen.  Can these caps be easily replaced/cleaned/ or is possibly fabricate some sort of a dip stick?

Thanks for any input.

Dick

[Marty and Suzie Schenck]

You can buy a replacement window kit for those at a major truck dealer or truck repair facility. About $25.00 each plus installation but if you are mechanicly inclined you can install them yourself.  Marty

[Gerald Farris]

Dick,
The plastic caps are readily available at truck parts stores (most Napa stores carry them). Considering the age of your coach, it would probably be a good idea to change the hub oil and seals when you replace the caps if they were not changed with previous brake repairs.

If you just need to change the plastic caps, they can be replaced very easily by unbolting them and installing the new ones. You will loose some of the oil when you remove the old caps, so be prepared to catch the old oil and have new oil ready to top-off the bearing oil level after installing the new caps.

Gerald

[Jeremy Parrett]

I bought 4 new oil bath sight glasses, at a truck repair facility in Utica NY for $23 each. I had them installed at South Coast RV in Chula Vista ; figure on 1 hours labor.  If you have a torque wrench, you could do it yourself. Refill to the level of the seal opening with the coach level.  If you overfill them (as did South Coast RV) the oil will weep out of the rubber cap. If you refill with synthetic gear oil, you won't need to service them for 100,000 miles

[Gil_Johnson]

On my 2008 Contessa, the caps are made from a synthetic material, black in color.  I ended up finding replacement caps for, I believe, less than $20 from Ryder Truck Supplies.  All the local truck places had aluminum covers.  Because I was only replacing one, I wanted them to match.  They are really easy to install.

[Mike Shumack]

I popped off my center hub caps the other day to see if I have oil or grease front bearings.
I have the solid black caps (as I believe described above) with a small off-center nonremovable plug. They say "grease only" or some words to that effect.

Did Beaver/monaco switch from oil to grease at some point? Is there any rule of thumb as to what type (oil or grease) was used for specific years of production?

[Joel Ashley]

Yeah Mike, some Beavers prior to 2003 have sealed oil front hubs that have to be monitored and maintained.  But most use standard greased bearings.  Gerald may be able to relate which were which when, and which grease you need to use, but as you know he’s encognito for a while yet.

You might review this old thread for some enlightenment:  http://beaveramb.org/forum/index.php?topic=893.0          The discussion was not enough to get me personally to switch to oil because the possibility of an overlooked leak didn’t seem worth it, and I generally keep to a service schedule that would entail repacking as needed.

Joel

[Gerald Farris]

Mike,
Monaco started phasing in grease packed front wheel bearings in 2003 in some models. There were also some earlier Beavers built on a Gillig chassis that had grease packed front wheel bearings. However, there is no way to tell which coaches have grease packed bearings now without a visual inspection because a very large number of the grease packed bearing coaches have been converted to oil bath because of lower maintenance cost and higher dependability. 

Gerald

[Mike Tomas]

So? can you switch from Oil to Grease? I'm liking the idea of keeping my eye more on the scenery than a leaking front oil bearing.

[Mike Shumack]

yes, you can switch. I was considering that myself, but then after reading a little more about it and doing some research, I decided to leave it as is.

There is some good reading (and links) here on the subject: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/front-wheel-bearing-lube-391795-2.html#post4200007

[Gerald Farris]

Everyone should run the lubricant in their front wheel bearings that meets their expectations, but I recommend that if you are changing from grease to oil or from oil to grease, for best results you should clean the old lubricant out of the hub and bearings, replace the hub seal, and replace the cap to the match the new lubricant.

Two things to keep in mind if you are considering changing from oil to grease is that bearing failures with grease are at least double that of oil bath bearings, especially oil bath bearings running synthetic oil. The other thing is that grease packed bearings require 2 to 3 times the maintenance labor cost.

Gerald   

[Mike Shumack]

Everyone should run the lubricant in their front wheel bearings that meets their expectations, but I recommend that if you are changing from grease to oil or from oil to grease, for best results you should clean the old lubricant out of the hub and bearings, replace the hub seal, and replace the cap to the match the new lubricant.

Two things to keep in mind if you are considering changing from oil to grease is that bearing failures with grease are at least double that of oil bath bearings, especially oil bath bearings running synthetic oil. The other thing is that grease packed bearings require 2 to 3 times the maintenance labor cost.

Gerald   

Wow - that's enough to make me switch to Oil. I hadn't heard/read that before.

[Bill Sprague]

There is an old theory.  It may not be fact. 

Oil bath works better if you drive enough to keep the parts inside "wet".  Grease works better if you only drive intermittently, like snowbirds.  With oil, at rest, it pools in the bottom and most of the bearing and axle are "exposed".

The theory may have been more true when the seals used leather and could "dry out".  Now they are all a synthetic of some sort. 

[Mike Shumack]

I heard that too Bill.
I actually quoted that theory in the other thread I was participating in on this subject (at irv2 forum that I linked to above). But I could not find any facts to back it up.

[Lee Welbanks]

I have removed wheel bearing from truck trailers that have been sitting for long periods of time that had some rust on them. The gear oil does drain off the upper parts of the bearings. Also probably when these trailers were parked the hubs may have been hot and with that you can get condensation inside the hub. All just a guess but I've seen rust on bearings.
My front hubs are grease and will stay grease. Trucks ran for years with greased bearings without problems.