A friend just hauled her two horse trailer from California to here in Northern Colorado. She had the bearings repacked before leaving, and three of her four caps came off en route. Now I hauled my two horse from Kentucky to here and had no such problems. The last remaining cap was on there pretty good, it took a good bit of prying to get it to come off. We've ordered four new ones, as well as seals and grease and all that, to do the job right. Any idea why they came off or how to prevent it? I'd prefer not to tape them or something, that just doesn't seem right. Mine are looser than her remaining one was and they stayed just fine.
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Looking for a clean IDI manual 4x4 to convert to vegetable oil. Or maybe a cummins if I can afford it.
They might have just put the old one back on or had ones the wrong size.
If they go on easy, they will come off easy. I always bend the old ones so
when I put them back on they take a good pounding, then they will not
come off.
The only time I had a dust (grease) cap come off on a trailer axle, it was apparently a warning that I had axle bearing problems. Probably caused by the vibration when a bearing is going bad.
Yes, I had packed the wheel bearings before that trip, and I did it "right". Yes, I keep the trailer tires balanced, so any vibration was not caused by out-of-balance tires.
I noticed the grease cap missing going through the Phoenix area, so I stopped at an auto parts store and bought a new one. There are a bunch of different sizes available, but that store found the right one for me - perfect tight fit.
Then we headed out east, but took the shortcut U.S.70 instead of I-10 from Phoenix to Lordsburg NM. About half way to Lordsburg I noticed the grease cap was missing again. Uh oh! Sure enough, before we got to I-10, the axle bearing had burned up and ruined the axle. We limped on into a KOA in Lordsburg with a ruined axle. Friday afternoon, and none of the businesses in Lordstown could replace a trailer axle or even could order one. Next I removed the axle from the trailer and threw it into the back of the pickup. So we spent the weekend going to El Paso (without the trailer), calling all over El Paso on Saturday morning trying to find an axle, finally ordering the axle on Saturday from a dealer in El Paso, then waiting until Tuesday morning when the axle arrived in El Paso. Our exact axle was not available anywhere within reason, so we ordered one two inches too wide. The dealer moved the perches from the old axle to the new one, and we were on our way. Then drive back across New Mexico, install the new axle, then hook up and get on the road again. The two inches too-wide axle worked just fine.
The only good thing about that experience is that Darling Daughter lives in El Paso, so we spent the weekend with her.
The KOA manager was fit to be tied. They have a rule that you cannot work on your RV in the RV park. So that 5er sitting there from Friday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon jacked up with an axle missing was very much against the rules. They didn't give me any sort of a discount when I checked out.
Lessons learned:
If you lose a grease cap, immediately find a place to park and fix whatever is the problem. As a minimum, repack the wheel bearings looking for bad bearings that might need replacing. Replacing a bearing is a lot less expensive and a lot less work than replacing an axle.
Always carry a floor jack with you in the bed of the pickup - along with a bottle jack - in addition to the jack that came with the pickup. Trying to change an axle without adequate jacks would have been a real pain.
Keep the tires on the trailer balanced, so you can rule out tire problems causing axle problems.
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Last edited by SmokeyWren : 05-25-2008 at 09:13 AM.
Reason: typo
Packing the hubs with to much grease can cause also cause the bearing caps to come off. Some people think you need to fill the entire hub with grease, which is not a good idea. The grease will not compress when the axle gets warm and will not be able to sqeeze through the joint between the cap and the hub. The expanding grease will either blow the inner seal or force the caps to pop off.
^ is exactly right - between the hot grease that can't compress and the extra heat buildup by having too much grease in the hub, there's no way the cap can stay tight. When you overpack a hub, you can get them hot enough to burn your hand checking them. All it takes is a little pressure on the backside, and just a touch of expansion on the hub itself, and off they come. Smokey is right, too, partly for the same reason - between the heat created by a bad bearing and the vibration of that same bad bearing, things can get rattled loose pretty easy.
You could always install those dust caps that have that grease fitting in them and can auto compensate for temp. The ones that boat trailers use. But I'm not sure if those would be compatible w/ trailers w/ brakes (some people may over grease them and pop the seal out or 'grease' your brakes...
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Had a similar experience with popping cap after front disc & bearing replacement. Cap was good n tight initially, but came off & rattled around in factory lug nut cover. Culprit was slight excess tightning of stub axle nut against thrust washer. Heat expands air in hub, off comes cap. Re adjusted with more play, with no damage. Lasted over 40K till the event below.
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You can order them from good parts houses for any size if they don't have them.
No more grease issues after that.
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1996 F-250 extended cab long box five speed. Home made Tymar, 203 Stat, 60 gal in bed fuel cell, 315/75's, no muffler, ebpv welded open 3" to 3" DP, Babies. 290K, still chugging, and still smoking when cold.
UPDATED 8/1/08 Replace so far. 1 LUK flywheel+clutch, 2 thermostats, 2 set of brakes, 1 set of calipers, 5 CPS, 3 sets of tires, 2 Transfer pumps, 1 Injector modual, 1 Computer, 2 Alt, 2 sets of batteries, 1 Water pump, 6 Belts, 1 PS hose, 2 Sets ball joints, 2 set u-joints, 2 carrier bearing, 2 Speed sensors, 1 oil pres sender, 1 temp sender, 4 sets of e-break cables, 1 front fuel tank, 2 rear fuel tanks, 2 set of glow plugs, 6 Glow plug relays, Oil galley o-rings, Turbo pedistal o-rings, EBPV o-rings, 3 sets of Injector O-rings, 1 Vac-pump, 1 new carpet.Total $$$ in repairs v/s miles driven = 3.0 cents per mile. Add fuel to that it jumps to 14.8 cents per mile over the life of the truck.
Had a similar experience with popping cap after front disc & bearing replacement. Cap was good n tight initially, but came off & rattled around in factory lug nut cover. Culprit was slight excess tightning of stub axle nut against thrust washer. Heat expands air in hub, off comes cap. Re adjusted with more play, with no damage. Lasted over 40K till the event below.
Yep - if it is done properly, the cap should not come off. Not too much grease and proper adjustment.
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They didn't give me any sort of a discount when I checked out. 
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