On Aug 11, 6:14*pm, "Steve B" wrote:
I took off my wheel bearings when I bought my boat, and repacked them. *They
probably have 150 miles on them since that.

IF I JACK UP MY TRAILER AND JUST SPIN THE WHEEL, what should I feel? *Should
there be ANY movement where you can take the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and
wiggle back and forth?

When I take the cap, key, and nut off, and put it back on, just how tight do
I put the nut? *Should I tighten it at all with a large ChannelLock, or just
to where I can get the key in the next groove in the nut?

I'm going to take them off and have a look see, and just was wondering how
to correctly put them back on.

Steve

Note- all advice void if there are actual instructions for the hub...

If this is two tapered roller bearings facing each other and separated
by a decent amount of space (not right up against each other), a small
amount of rocking movement is acceptable, and preferable to it being
too tight. If you can feel it but not really see it, it's not too
loose.

Tighten by backing it off and making it too loose, then use channel
locks to make it just snug, then back off to the next keying location.
Good wheel bearings use a nut with a 12 position cap that engages the
nut and the cotter pin.

Really fancy wheel bearings will have instructions that say to tighten
the nut to nnn in-lbs, then loosen ddd degrees.

If you only have the choice of a course adjustment, and you have to
make the call between what seems tight and what seems loose, well,
that's why they call it a judgement call.

Too tight is solely defined by shortening the life of the bearings.

If you do not want to have any movement when trying to rock it, use
the very first notch that eliminates all rocking, no more.



Dave