hubs

[patrick flowers]

>
> You have not talked about the grease fitting in your hubs. Do you think
> this is a good idea ? Does it seem to work?

Not trying to "rub it in", but at Marion I talked at length with Ken
Thoma about front wheel bearings. He uses Mobil1 grease(you were right
Arch!) and has pulled sets at 30k miles and found "pink" grease between
the bearings. There's no need to do anything else but properly service
these things IMNSHO!

The thing that worries me about a zerk fitting is the possibility of
blowing out the inside seal.

Patrick
- --
Patrick Flowers
Mailtoatri63

The GMC Motorhome Page
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com

 

[dick kennedy]

Patrick

When I purchased my coach it was advertised as having the Wallace bearings.
When these bearings were disassembled they were found to be so badly burned
that one side was siezed to the hub. They had apparently been neglected for
a long time and I was very near to having another catastrophic failure to
add to my long list. (I think I'm the current record holder regarding
catastrophic failures on the road)

I don't remember any of the details regarding the Wallace hubs but they are
apparently bigger and stronger than the OEM's and are claimed to be more
reliable. They may or may not be better; I don't know, but they are still
near enough to the edge that they absolutely must be maintained properly.

Anyway my coach is now back to the standard hubs and bearings and I haven't
had any new problems in this regard. My opinion is that these old beasts
have been running forever on the standard bearings so do the maintenance and
leave 'em alone.

I don't believe mine presently has the Syn grease but it will have after the
next round which probably won't be for another several years at my current
usage rate.

That brings to mind the other big advantage of these machines. You spend
all of your spare time working on 'em so it keeps the mileage down. On the
other hand mine seems to take about a hundred dollars a day whether I'm in
it or under it.

FWIW

Dick

>>
>> You have not talked about the grease fitting in your hubs. Do you think
>> this is a good idea ? Does it seem to work?
>
>Not trying to "rub it in", but at Marion I talked at length with Ken
>Thoma about front wheel bearings. He uses Mobil1 grease(you were right
>Arch!) and has pulled sets at 30k miles and found "pink" grease between
>the bearings. There's no need to do anything else but properly service
>these things IMNSHO!
>
>The thing that worries me about a zerk fitting is the possibility of
>blowing out the inside seal.
>
>Patrick
>--
>Patrick Flowers
>Mailtoatri63
>
>The GMC Motorhome Page
>http://www.gmcmotorhome.com
>
>
>

 

[dick kennedy]

>In a message dated 10/18/98 9:54:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time,

>
> reliable. They may or may not be better; I don't know, but they are still
> near enough to the edge that they absolutely must be maintained properly.
>
> Anyway my coach is now back to the standard hubs and bearings and I >>
>
>Did you replace the hubs? If so do you still have the wallace hubs?
>Manny 73 Glacier
>
Yes, the hubs were put back to the originals. It's a long story but I found
the coach on the internet. It was in Texas so I stopped to look at while on
vacation and ended up buying it and leaving my old RV parked in Texas. After
driving only a few miles I found the handling was terrible. This eventually
resulted in a diagnosis of bad ball joints which couldn't be found locally.
We eventually found an add for GMC parts in an RV magazine and called
somebody in florida; It must have been Golby but I don't recall. On their
recomendation we went to Ray Curtis' shop in Eaton, Co. He replaced the
ball joints and in the process found that the bearings had serious problems.
He recommended that I put the hubs back to the original.

Those bearings had been seriously hot and would not have gone much further
so something had to be done on the spot. I remember that Ray pressed out the
bearing one one side but that he couldn't get the other side out with the
press that he had. Ray explained the story behind the Wallace hubs to me in
detail. I believe he new him personally. Ray has also written articles
about the GMC. (GMCMHM I believe) If you're interested in converting I
would recommend you talk to Ray. I would also assume that any of the other
shops who specialize in GMC's should be knowledgable.

In retrospect after watching this group and getting older, wiser, and poorer
I may have done things differently. I took a perfectly good machine with no
mechanical problems and swapped it for this mechanical nightmare. Had I
known what I was in for I probably would have done something else but that's
history. Besides, everywhere I go somebody comes over to talk about the
GMC. Nobody ever did that with the Tioga; it was ugly. I paid way too much
for the machine initially but it will still a good investment in the long
term although that investment is a lot larger and more painful than I
expected. Something newer would be costing several thousand per year just in
depreciation.

My real mistake was that I should have taken my vacation in the old RV and
shuttled the GMC home at a later time. I wasted more than a week of vacation
time on this. If I had had it at home where I have the tools and the time
to study it I probably would have made the Wallace vs OEM decision on the
basis of whatever was cheapest.

FWIW

Dick

 

[patrick flowers]

>

> >In a message dated 10/18/98 9:54:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time,

> >
> > > reliable. They may or may not be better; I don't know, but they are still
> > near enough to the edge that they absolutely must be maintained properly.



> My real mistake was that I should have taken my vacation in the old RV and
> shuttled the GMC home at a later time. I wasted more than a week of vacation
> time on this. If I had had it at home where I have the tools and the time
> to study it I probably would have made the Wallace vs OEM decision on the
> basis of whatever was cheapest.

A couple more notes from Marion regarding hubs. There may have been
some quality control problems with the later Wallace hubs(those produced
after Bill's death) which resulted in(or hastened) the decision not to
continue producing them.

There is also another new hub design being produced which inserts a ball
bearing in between the two tapered roller bearings. This is
accomplished by using an extended seal retainer which also serves to
hold part of the outer race of the outer roller bearing and machining
the "snout" of the hub to make additional room. I'm told the designer
of this hub lost a wheel on the way home from Las Vegas as the hub was
machined too thin.

Obviously, I'm withholding names here to protect the guilty(and keep
myself from being sued), but I have no reason to doubt the source of the
information.

Patrick
- --
Patrick Flowers
Mailtoatri63

The GMC Motorhome Page
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com

 

[patrick flowers]

>
> -- [ From: Eugene Fisher * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] --
>
> What is Buskirk doing with his new hubs to make them better ?? Does any
> one know?
> gene

Inserting a ball bearing in between the two roller bearings.

Patrick
- --
Patrick Flowers
Mailtoatri63

The GMC Motorhome Page
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com