Maintaining the Bearings on your Expedition One Tire Carrier

Stiffness, binding, or rattling in your tire carrier arm may be an indicator for maintenance needed on the bearings in your hub assembly. This could be caused by a number of factors including environment, impact, lack of/type of grease, corrosion, and/or over-tightening.

Our carriers are designed for easy maintenance with easy removal of the hub cap to access the hub assembly. Zirc fittings and generally not necessary, due to ease of access. Wear components and replacement parts can be easily sourced from your local auto parts store and often have a variety of brands/pricing. The bearings used are a high-speed/high heat wheel bearings, but for our applications are being used under moderate loads and low speed ( 0 rpms), so they will typically last a long time.

Instructions for bearing checks and maintenance:

  • Loosen your hub cover cap. If anti-seize was used this should easily be done by hand or with a simple grip tool.
  • Observe the top bearing. If there is a lot of moisture, discoloration, or corrosion you could have a grease problem. We recommend using a water-resistant, marine grade grease for this reason.
  • If you do not see a lot of moisture or discoloration and do not want to un-bolt the arm you can first try to pack the hub assembly with a lot of marine-grade grease and cycle it through by moving the arm back and forth. This may fix your problem.

If movement is not improving with additional grease and cycling or you believe you have broken bearings continue by unbolting and removing the arm.

  • Take out the top bearing and examine it. If it rolls and does not show signs of damage or coming apart then it is probably ok. Check the cage holding the bearings is in-tact. If you see any damage or broken parts you will need to replace the bearing.
  • The bottom bearing is held in by the grease seal. You want to gently remove the grease seal by using a hammer and a tool such as a center punch, aul, or screwdriver to gently tap out the grease seal so you can access the bottom bearing.
  • Observe and examine the bottom bearing for signs of damage. Again, If the bearing does not roll or if parts are popping out or there is damage to the cage you will want to replace the bearing.
  • If the bearings are rolling and are just dirty or gummy, you can use WD40, brake cleaner, or penetration spray to clean them out.

Be sure to re-pack with a lot of marine-grade grease when replacing cleaned and/or used bearings and use anti-seize when re-installing your hub cover cap. Caps should be snug but be careful not to over-tighten, as this can put too much pressure on the bearing cage and cause bearings to fail. We do not provide torque specs, as the exact right tightening for your application can be hard to gauge with the nylock nut. We recommend you check to feel the nylock has been tightened and that the cap is snug and not to tighten beyond that point.

Replacement part #s (please note that it would be very rare that a race needs to be replaced but in the event that is necessary, part#s are below)

Single “Classic” Swing arms (not including dual swing arm models with a deleted arm location)

FJ/JK/JL Single Swing Large bearing: LM102949

FJ/JK/JL single swing lower race: LM102910

FJ/JK/JL single swing Small bearing: 15123

FJ/JK/JL single swing upper race: 15245

FJ/JK/JL single swing grease seal: 37502250

 

DUAL swing arm Parts:

Bearings: LM48548

Race: LM48510

Grease Seal: 5121