Ford 3000 front wheel bearing zerk issue

[johneic]

I have the service and owners manuals, they are not helpful

I have do not have a zerk on either front wheel, I have a variety of zerk sizes. I tried to thread in two different sizes, could not get one to thread.

Question
1) Is the center of the spindle, just outboard of the cotter pin, where the zerk should be?

 

[Gallo]

Can you take a picture?

 

[HakanTh]

I think you mean a zerk on the hub cap, correct me if I am wrong.
There are two types of caps:
One is made of cast iron and has a zerk, http://www.oie.se/Archive/Bilder/Produkter/GRAPHIC0000530052.jpg?width=250&height=250
One is made of steel and has no zerk, http://www.oie.se/Archive/Bilder/Produkter/GRAPHIC0002706475.jpg?width=250&height=250

The steel type was fitted on most tractors, the one with zerk is intended for use in environments where the front axle gets under water. You could then easily chase the water out from the bearings by pressing grease through them.

 

[johneic]

HakanTh you hit the nail on the head for me, Big Thanks for your great answer!, But this raises more questions:

I have the steel one, so:

1) I have to pull the wheel and manually repack the bearings every 50-100 hours?

2) Is it worth $40 ($20x2) to buy the cast iron ones? (This is kind of a stupid question as I mow about 10 hours a week in spring, and run it maybe 2 hours a week in winter) Well worth $40.00 not to pull my wheels once a month or so April to September.

New Dust Cap for Ford New Holland Tractor 2000 3000 2110 2120 2150 2300 230A | eBay

I also checked Amazon, nothing there with a zerk tap.

3) Anyone know of a lower cost one tapped for a zerk?

4) Can I drill and tap my steel one to accept a zerk or is it too thin? or am I missing something else?

PS I got confused by the owners manual as it just shows an overhead view of the tractor with an arrow pointing to the middle of the front wheel (denoted grease), duh!

My service manual says noting about lubrication (As it should).

 

[johneic]

HakanTh if you ever want something from the U.S.A. where the seller will not ship overseas, contact me, I sell a lot on ebay and ship overseas, I will arrange with you to have it delivered to me and I will ship to you at my cost!

John

PS, Not a scam, I take Paypal and/or could make a listing just for you on ebay.

 

[Soundguy]

if you want zerks in your caps drill and tap for them. BTDT.. takes 5 minutes.

sometimes you get lucky and find a later hub with zerk in hub.

 

[johneic]

Thanks Soundguy!

 

[Gary Fowler]

HakanTh you hit the nail on the head for me, Big Thanks for your great answer!, But this raises more questions:

I have the steel one, so:

1) I have to pull the wheel and manually repack the bearings every 50-100 hours?


View attachment 386674View attachment 386675

I have never seen a front wheel bearing that required greasing every 50 hour or even ever 5000 hours. If you properly pack the wheel bearing when installing them and put plenty of bearing grease inside the hub, you should never have to grease it again. The only thing I have ever had to do for wheel bearing is jack up the wheel, check for slack in the bearing, if it is a bit loose, remove the cotter pin in the castle nut and tighten it a bit. Spin the wheel, it should roll freely but not be loose on the wheel spindle.

Unless you are routinely running your tractor with water over the front axle, that should be all you ever have to do. You may at some point have to replace the grease seal at the back of the hub and/or bearings after several thousand hours.
I don't know where you came up with the requirement for repacking the wheels every 100 hours.

 

[RickB]

I have the service and owners manuals, they are not helpful

I have do not have a zerk on either front wheel, I have a variety of zerk sizes. I tried to thread in two different sizes, could not get one to thread.

Question
1) Is the center of the spindle, just outboard of the cotter pin, where the zerk should be?

No. The grease zerk may be installed in the hub, never the spindle. You are trying to install a zerk in a machined center Used in the manufacturing process. It leads nowhere and has no threads.

 

[Soundguy]

remember.. ford hub seals are dust seals. also the screw in cap is less than water tight.

grease is cheap!