Can I mix grease and gear oil?

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Chris142

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I'm replacing the wheel seals on my Peterbilt. Since it's a toy and doesn't carry any weight I packed the wheel bearings with High temp Lithium grease.

If I should decide to go back to gear oil in the hubs can I just fill em up or do I gotta clean the grease out first?
 
Originally they were lubed by grease. Later on the window things came about and people started adding oil.

Prolly go longer between servicing if running oil vs repacking bearings every 50K?
 
yeah oil lubed will wash out debris and will cool better to but grease will work if you do not mind the trouble.
bruce
 
Talked to a friend of mine at a truck garage about this ,a older fellow,said in these type of bearings you can run a thinner grease for low temps,dont mix gear oil and grease,and use the "new type seals",that exist in the Peterbuilt parts book,,he reconmended of course Schaeffers 238#1 grease or Mobil delvac NLGI 1 grease.BL
 
Oil filled and grease packed hubs on most big stuff (that Pete probably has Meritor or Spicer diffs) use different hubs and seals. I personally would never go back to a grease packed hub. Grease hubs are more involved to service, require more frequent service, run hotter, have higher levels of contamination and are generally just a pain. I think Lithium grease is the wrong choice even if you still want to pack the bearings IMHO, but you can add oil to the grease later if you want.

On drive axles you don't get the little window and some of them you can't fill directly. On these I lightly coat the bearing with a good bearing grease before I install them and then go about filling the hubs as best as possible without a fill plug in the hub itself. I'd stick with oil filled.
 
I restored some old Chevy pickups and the lube for the steering boxes are to be mixed with gear oil and grease. I think lithium grease is the wrong grease to use on bearings. Use hightemp bearing grease on your bearings.
 
The only way to know for sure what steer axle it has is to physically check it or look up the VIN. However, regardless of what brand if it had oil bath hubs I would stick with them. If that axle had grease hubs I would convert them to oil. I don't think you said what year that Peterbilt is; Rockwell was more common on older trucks, Spicer and Eaton more so now - at least in this part of the country. Anyway, it's just my .0000002 cents worth and if you really want to grease 'em it'll work.
 
quote:
Originally posted by 1040 WreckerMan:
The only way to know for sure what steer axle it has is to physically check it or look up the VIN. However, regardless of what brand if it had oil bath hubs I would stick with them. If that axle had grease hubs I would convert them to oil. I don't think you said what year that Peterbilt is; Rockwell was more common on older trucks, Spicer and Eaton more so now - at least in this part of the country. Anyway, it's just my .0000002 cents worth and if you really want to grease 'em it'll work.
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It's a 62. The grease is high temp wheel bearing grease and it says it's suitable up to 500F. I'm not pulling anything with it. It's a toy.

When they sit for a long time the oil will leak out the seals and make a mess. If the Cops (I still must go through scales and inspection stations)see oil everywhere they will red tag me.

A road call will cost a bundle at this point. I'm a member of the American Truck Historical Society and most of the guys there use grease because it won't leak if it sits unmoved for a month or more.

Here's the truck.
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Chris,

I am constantly amazed at how many people on this site get so buisy telling you what you're doing wrong that they completely ignore the question thats been asked!

Unfortunately I can't give you anything solid, except from personal experience. A few years ago had a bushog gearbox with leaking output shaft. Quite a chore to change! So as a lazy Arkie I would mix whatever chassis lube was handy with high quality (GL5) gearlube and STP. Stayed in box well and MUCH less gear whine than gl5 only. Eventually did replace seal. Filled with my "goop" and to the best of my knowledge still in use. I'd not hesitate to add gear lube to grease in you're application. Besides,, It's All Slick:D

Bob

PS, Started post before your pic was up,,GREAT LOOKIN' TRUCK
worshippy.gif
 
Nice truck. Do the shutters still work well? It that a Red Dot heater or AC on the roof? It sounds like you may have a hub/spindle problem where the seal doesn't compress enough to make a good seal. Oil hubs will seep, but even after prolonged periods of sitting there shouldn't be anymore than just a film. I ran a 79 W-900 that would site all winter, I had to weld up one hub and machine it down to get it to hold oil all winter!

It's interesting that they make a private truck scale? Most other states treat your truck as an "RV" as long as it's privately owned and "Not For Hire." I know that some states require a not for hire tag to be displayed.

alreadygone: I'm not sure if your post refers to me or not, but I want to explain my statements some anyway. I never said that Chris142 was wrong. I explained that I dislike grease packed hubs on HD trucks/buses and explained why. I also answered his question several times stating that he could mix gear oil and grease and gave anecdotal evidence to prove that based on working on a fleet of 1400 buses and working on heavy equipment and for a trucking company.

Chris142, if I wasn't clear: There isn't a problem with mixing hub oil and grease, and you are using bearing grease so you will be fine there. I still stand by my statement that oil is better and grease is a real pain, IMHO. I would prefer to find out why the oil leaks, but that could get quite expensive so I understand why you want to pack the hubs now. Pack 'em and forget them, you will be fine, service them more frequently is all you will need to do.
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Is it common for large trucks/buses/machines to use oil instead of grease in the wheel bearings? If so, is there a sump/pump/filter arrangement? Or is it a simple oil bath?

Sorry for the questions, my knowledge/experiance with large vehicles is nill, and this is the first I have heard of oil based wheel bearings.

Thanks.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Tempest:
offtopic.gif


Is it common for large trucks/buses/machines to use oil instead of grease in the wheel bearings? If so, is there a sump/pump/filter arrangement? Or is it a simple oil bath?

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Yes.

It's just a simple oil bath. As the bearing rotates it just dips into the oil.

1040wreckerman. I wired the shutters open.Truck has a T-stat in it so they are not really needed. I didn't trust the thing to open them plus I think it looks better with em open.

The wheel seals were worn down to the garter springs. I replaced them with a different style of seal. I figure I'll run it till I need to replace the brakes on that axle then I'll swap it over to oil.

May possibly make it into a 2-axle so I may end up ditching the tag. Truck was originally a 2-axle with a 187 wheelbase. I bet that rode nice.............Not!!!!

I plan on doing the other side this weekend then tackle the drive axle since it's really throwin oil.

The AC unit is an "Ideal-Air". Same thing as a RedDot. It's in pretty bad shape. Has rust and both blowers are locked up. I don't think it's ever been used though. While messing around up there I determined that there's no oil in the drier or lines.

The end of the lines are flare fittings and don't appear to have ever been attached to a compressor.

There's no mount on the engine or extra pullys for a compressor.

I think someone was going to add AC and never finished.

I wish it wasn't there. If I remove it I'll have a big huge hole in the roof and headliner. My cost on a new one is $1200. I can get an under dash setup that has AC and a heater for about $400.
 
The guy that owns one of the companies I work for still has a 69 W900 with a 8v71 and 5&4. Shutters on that still work but needed a little TLC. I always get a kick out of driving that truck.

You could always put a sunroof in where the AC came out of I suppose. Although they work well in very hot climates, I never liked that box hanging out on the roof, but it's not mine so I can't complain right? I installed a setup from Vintage Air last winter and was surprised at the quality of parts, the stuff worked better than the factory equipment that came in the truck!

Does that have a steel or aluminum frame? I'm guessing it probably has Hendrickson walking beam for the rear suspension? Hendrickson certainly won't improve the ride any. If there are any truck wrecking yards around your area I'd be calling them and seeing what they have for a new set of drives on air ride. Might be able to work out a trade plus a little cash. That Neway 4 bag is pretty heavy duty. Although since you aren't really pulling any weight an 8 bag setup would be sweet riding. Looks like a fun project
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quote:
Originally posted by 1040 WreckerMan:



Does that have a steel or aluminum frame? I'm guessing it probably has Hendrickson walking beam for the rear suspension? Hendrickson certainly won't improve the ride any. If there are any truck wrecking yards around your area I'd be calling them and seeing what they have for a new set of drives on air ride. Might be able to work out a trade plus a little cash. That Neway 4 bag is pretty heavy duty. Although since you aren't really pulling any weight an 8 bag setup would be sweet riding. Looks like a fun project
cool.gif

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The frame is steel with alum crossmembers, The rear suspension it worse that a walking beam.


It's Page&Page! Has 2 big levers that put more weight on the drive axle as more weight is put on the truck.

Theres no truck junkyards anywhere near me. None within a 100+ mile radius anyway. If I were to swap it over to air ride on the rear I'd just buy an old cabover for $1500 or so.
 
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