Front Wheel Bearings

[Jim in SC]

I've slowly been working on the '51 H I bought back in February. All has been going pretty good and I haven't had a lot of questions (well, okay - the lights. They worked fine until I painted the light bar. Took me awhile to figure out that the paint was messing up the ground. They work better than before I painted it - got the old paint and rust off and they're bright as heck now!).

I do have a question for the forum though. This afternoon I decided to remove the front hub cap to see what I could see there. When it was loose, I pulled the cap off and - oil flowed out. Oil. Thick, but it sure ran like oil. I can't for the life of me figure out how the previous owner got oil in there. Could it be grease that has broken down over time? I've pulled the wheel bearings on a lot of cars over the years, and also on the Cub I had up until recently. I never ran into oil in a wheel bearing before though.

Am I missing something? I was expecting to find an outer bearing with a washer, the spindle, and an inner bearing. And grease. Not oil.

What's up with my bearing, guys?

[Jim Becker]

My bet is separated grease.

[Jim in SC]

Thanks, Jim, I believe that's it too. I'll be correcting that this week. Thanks you for the reply!

[Jim in SC]

Yep, Jim, you were right. The grease in both of the front wheel bearings had liquified/separated. Turned basically into heavy oil. Fortunately, the spindles are fine and so are the Original IHC bearings! Wow, 67 years old and still spinning! They are now nicely repacked with new axle grease and it's on to something else on this tractor - probably removing either the seat assembly or removing the rear wheels - both need refreshing.