Hundred series rear wheel bearings, lube???

markct

Well-known Member
So as I been putting together another
Ford from parts of a couple different
ones I was thumbing thru the book and
noticed in the diagrams of the rear axle
it shows an inner and outer axle seal
just like my John Deere has, except the
John Deere has a grease fitting and I
can't find any plug to grease or add oil
or anything on the Ford. Seems all our
Ford's are simular setup and knock on
wood I haven't had a bearing failure yet
but especially this rear axle that's
been sitting for years I would like to
regrease or top off etc yet don't see
how. Thought about drilling and tapping
but surely that can't be necessary, is
there a particular bolt that comes out
or something?
 
Ford **0/1 rear axle bearings can only be packed after disassembly.

IIRC, Ford specifies that they be repacked at 1000 (600?) hours but just about no one does this anymore.

Dean
 
Wow I'm amazed Ford had such short sightedness on this, I suppose I will be drilling and tapping a small hole then to keep my bearings healthy for years to come
 
Not shortsighted at all. Recommended grease is long fiber slow speed bearing grease (probably no longer available).

If you fill the bearing cavity with grease you will end up with grease on your brakes.

Dean
 
Unless you plan to drive this tractor back and forth to work everyday, the bearings, properly packed and adjusted, will last a very long time.

How often do you think JD bearings ever got greased when the zerks were always covered with mud?
 
Good points guys, not sure how I will go about this, probably just repack and be done
 
Umless you know that there is a problem with the bearings now, leave them alone. Tractor axles turn at a very slow RPM and the bearings require little lubrication. If you open it up and repack you may create more problems than you solve.
 
Wow I'm amazed Ford had such short sightedness on this, I suppose I will be drilling and tapping a small hole then to keep my bearings healthy for years to come

Just as likely to cause a problem doing this by getting metal shavings inside there from the drilling than you might be in preventing some future unlikely bearing problem.
 
Plus, these tractors have been running fine without a grease fitting for 50 to 60 years so far, so if bearing failures were a problem the folks on this forum would know about it by now.
 
True, and I figured I would turn it
upside down to drill and tap it, but
probably I'm worrying about nothing
 
another thing to think about... that is the narrowest part of that axle housing, so drilling a hole there might lead to premature failure/cracking of the housing itself.
 
I gotta study the pictures again, I
thought I could drill it in the little
"spacer" between the axle trumpet and
brake backing plate
 
Don't want to drill too close to the brake backing plate. There's a bearing cup plus an outer seal outboard of the bearing and you would want your hole centered on the bearing itself, between the inner and outer bearing cups. Not a lot of margin of error.
 

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