Allis WD Hubs Update

He replaced that F-20 with one of the last WD's in '53. A wheel bearing went out on it a few years later. 

I took it over in '57 and a front wheel bearing went out on me.

I got to thinking about them not having zerks like the F-20, so every so often I took the screwed on bearing cap off and filled it with gun grease and screwed it back on, which filled the bearings with grease.

I had that WD until 1965 and never had a problem with the front wheel bearings again.

I have a 720 garden tractor with a loader on it, that I bought maybe 3 years ago, and had a front wheel bearing go out a couple weeks ago, and the other front wheel was a little sloppily.

The repair manual stats that you tighten the spindles until all slop is gone, just like all other spindles.   

But then could not tighten them like that before the nut bottomed out. So I made a special washer for each spindle. 

Then added a grease zerk to each hub cover. Now we'll see how long they hold up.

Dusty

So, I did notice that installing the "cup washer" on the inner bearing, you basically had to brass hammer it in with a seal installer, it was super tight... Does this seem correct, everybody?

Sugarmaker -- The clamp nut seemed to work good. I managed to get it spun on just right to get the clamp on, and to get a smaller cotter pin in the slot as well, just as extra insurance. But will need to check after running awhile and re-adjust the nut anyway, I figure.

Yeah, I think a grease fitting would be great for these things. Taking apart to repack is a chore, no wonder they wear out. I am told that the gas cap got welded on the original hub cap because it "wouldn't hold grease anymore" since it had cut through the cap with the spindle and cotter pin.

The next thing to tackle is going to be the wobbly steering on my other WD (hold the steering wheel straight, front wheels dance, especially in 3rd or 4th gear). May be a good fall/winter project to tear apart...

Thanks for the feedback and support, all!

I dont have a clue as to the clearance. But I havent had any issues with the cap hitting. Glad this side is better!

Hadn't posted an update in awhile... Anyway, determined that my clearance is bad of the hubcap to the spindle tip -- probably due to excessive wear on the inside of the hub (maybe wore down the casting a bit or the bearing spacer -- hard to tell).

So anyway, I was able to hunt down some shims on McMaster-Carr (1.5" ID, 2.125" OD) that are a close match and come in 0.06 and 0.09 thickness. The bearing spacer measured out at around 1.5" ID and 2.0" OD (which leaves clearance for the 2.20" curved seal retaining washer thing).

So I have a buddy turning down the shims for me to 2.0 OD with his lathe so I can use them to take up the slop in the hub assembly now. Probably not the most ideal approach, but I think it should work (this should leave the same dimensions as when it was assembled before with a giant flat washer in the middle instead, but still allow me to properly install the seals).

IBWD MIke wrote: Personally not a fan of the zerk on the hub. Much prefer to just 'pack' them. The zerk system gets grease in there but how much actually gets to the rollers? More mess to clean up when they come apart too.

I'll toss in one more note here.  Many times, designers intentionally leave grease fittings off components so that you WILL disassemble and clean, before repacking.

Why?

Because people frequently do not pay attention to what type of grease is in that gun.

Let's say the factory packs a hub with a quality sodium-based wheel bearing grease.  Now the homeowner comes by with a grease-gun loaded with a calcium-sulfonate based chassis grease, or waterproof lithium grease... and gives that hub three squirts.

Yep, that factory grease is coming out, so it's good, walk away.

Now come back six months later, and the bearings are seized, cap blows off, and the nut spins and shears off the cotter pin, spitting the cap off.  Why?

Saponifcation.  It's when two metals of a mixture react, and turn to something kinda like stone.

Ever wonder how Loctite works?  it's a type of saponification that occurs when oxygen hits the two suspended metals in that red stuff... and when it crystalizes, it expands (like most crystalline structures do).

By omitting a grease fitting, it makes sure one of THREE things WILL happen:

1) it'll get ignored, and run on the same original grease for most of it's intended life...

2) it'll get dismantled, cleaned, and repacked with JUST ONE TYPE of grease

3) it'll get drilled and fitted with a zerk fitting, and either be maintained by someone who knows what they're doing, or it'll die soon from saponifcation...

Hee hee... that happens too.  They continued to roll, and at walking speed, that's really all that mattered, right?

I had a buddy who told me the story about his dad's old green two-cylinder... bought it new in like... 49... ran it on the farm all the way up 'till '85 or so, then sold it to a neighbor.  All those years, Dad told son to 'check and add' oil as necessary... and he says that it never needed much.

first thing the neighbor did, was drain the engine oil, rinse the gak out of the pan, and refill it with new oil, and Dad told him "You shouldn'ta done that... you'll ruin that engine'.  Well, neighbor knew best... and six weeks later, that tractor's engine seized up and broke a rod.

Now, did replacing that old nasty oil cause it, or was it flushing it out, or did it leak out of a seal?  I dunno, but it's a strange story, and apparently that tractor is still sitting in the fencerow across from his Dad's farm... {shrug}

Now... MY grandpa was not one to be locally known as a wizard of anything other than raising livestock, crops, and cutting trees, but he would NEVER let me touch his grease guns.  I suspect he had obtained some unfortunate carnal knowledge of incompatible lubricants at some time, and did NOT care to relive the costly frustrations.  I was too young to know much about it when I was helping him as a kid, but I learned later, and was able to associate all the troublesome repairs with that useless information they taught us in High School chemistry.

I suspect your old gal will have some more surprises, and accordant tuition to be paid in blood, sweat, and tears, but I'm certain that once you've passed all the classes in steering, internal combustion, gearboxes and clutches, final drives, brakes, tires and wheels, wiring, cooling systems, PTO and lifts, you'll find that real life with tractors to actually be really, really easy, even when the task seemed infathomable before.

Some have even noted that working on old tractors is somehow 'theraputic'.

For me, it's absolute torture.  Why?

-- Because, the more I work on old tractors, the more I HATE working on modern cars and trucks.

You stand alongside the tractor, and the distributor, carbeurator, water pump, generator, air filter... they're all right there.  No bending over, no zillion little plastic clips to break off, no link-straps and engine mounts to remove to lean the engine forward to remove a @#%^ spark plug...

  Enjoy the simple life of agrarian harmony...  and no metric fasteners!!!