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what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 8th, 2017, 6:18 pm
by birdacre
took my 28 AA for maiden voyage. about 30 miles. ran well. question, the tube from transmission to crossmember. hot hot to the touch and some grease dripping out of clamshells on both ends. U joints packed with grease before reassemble. there are grease fittings to lube the U joints. QUESTION??? no noise, no grinding just a hot tube. the tube from cross member to rear end very cool. any ideas about how to trouble shoot this. roller bearings seemed perect. when i jacked up rear end and ran for 30 minutes with kerosene to clean rear end, ALL tubes, clamshells. very cool. so why under a load is heat being created. has anyone ever had this scenario??? any advice appreciated. I want to make it correct. I was skeptical when putting it together WHAT would lube the roller bearings on each end of this short tube. thank you, kevin

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 8th, 2017, 8:10 pm
by 1crosscut
Interesting. I wonder if perhaps the rear end got a little over full with Kerosene and with it jacked up it ran back into the tube washing out grease in that area?

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 8th, 2017, 8:55 pm
by Stakebed
Hmm 30 miles isn't very long. It doesn't surprise me it only gets hot under a load which leads me to believe something bearing related. What croscut mentioned may be true. Does the dripping hot grease smell like kerosene in any way? What brand or type of grease did you use? And how much?

Was there any slop or pitted bearings in the area?

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 9th, 2017, 5:03 am
by birdacre
the roller bearings were perfect, no pits, nice finish. there is a slight kerosene smell i think??? then again old grease liquified smells odd. maybe that is what is the liquid source. i packed the you joints heavy and filled a good part of the clam shell full, very full, but not completly. what is supposed to lubricate the roller bearings. is the grease designed to flow to the roller bearings. any help welcomed. thank you, kevin

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 10th, 2017, 8:12 am
by njcar757
I have my 29 rear axle completely disassembled, sandblasted and reassembled, reinstalling the torque was very difficult. My question is, did you remove the torque tube?
nick c

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 10th, 2017, 2:08 pm
by birdacre
no, this is the front short tube from transmission to crossmember. what do you think lubes the roller bearings. grease slinging from the U joints hat have grease fittings in the clam shells. hope you can help. kevin

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 10th, 2017, 4:51 pm
by njcar757
Heres what gave me fit when trying to install the torque tube which is similar to what you worked on. I had to replace the seal which means I had to remove the needle bearing and the race, it was hard to get the race in the perfect place, the bearing would go in but not all the way, it looked OK but it wasn't, I used plenty of grease and I couldn't see what the problem was. Finally I saw the race where it is split, it has a pointed tail, at that tip it was not seated in the right place, causing the bearing to be too tight and bind. I took the tube off and dropped a flat washer in the tube and tapped it one time with a piece of pipe. Now the tip of the split race was seated and bearing was not in a bind. It is very easy to accidently bump the bearing or race and cause it to be not seated.
hope this helps nick c

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 10th, 2017, 7:36 pm
by 1crosscut
Don't the races have a raised bump on the outside of them that has to fit into a recess in the torque tube? You could be right in that this is what is causing a bind and excess heat.

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 11th, 2017, 5:24 am
by njcar757
Yes, your correct about the bump and recess. I thought the race was correct when I installed it, any slight tap will cause one of the pointed ends of the split race to push out slightly. It was hard to notice because of the grease in the race until I wiped it clean.
nick c

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 11th, 2017, 7:24 am
by birdacre
do you guys think that the u joint is designed to throw grease at the roller bearing in ends of front short tube. this is my worry. i put grease on them during install and am worried about the grease spreading and the grease from the u joint not slinging a fresh supply. what in your opinion lubes the roller bearings in this front shaft???

Re: what lubricates roller bearings in AA drive shaft, outer shaft hot to touch

Posted: August 11th, 2017, 11:54 am
by emf
birdacre and I have been sending emails back and forth regarding the bearing lubrication. I took some photos of mine and sent them to him, but I thought the info might be of use here. It is my belief that the bearings are lubricated from the u-joints, but why wouldn't a press-in grease fitting work there? I don't think hyatt bearings require too much grease, but I'm going by my experience with Model T rear axles...

Frank