New bearings and races, how clean does the hub need to be?

[sdyck]

I've never done this before, was redoing all my front bushings and figured I might as well do the bearings and races.

Everything is apart but still need to tap out the old races. I've seen that a few people really cleaned up their hubs before putting in the new races, even going as far as soaking them in gas or mineral spirits.  I was originally only going to wipe off as much of the old grease as I could thinking the residual couldn't hurt. Any advice here?

thanks, Steve

[Chickenman]

Wipe the old junk out with a rag. That's normally good enough. You can use Brake Cleaner to get it spotless if the old grease was heavily contaminated. Don't forget to repack center of the hub with new grease. Couple of nice big " globs " applied is usually sufficient inside hub.

You can use a use a bearing packer or the old timer " Hand " method to repack the bearings. The following video shows the proper hand method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhL1uAp_WCw

 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Chickenman

[Jeff G 78]

If the seals went bad along the way and allowed any grit to enter the hubs, then clean them completely.  Otherwise, just scoop out the old grease and give it a wipe before installing the new bearings.