Regreasing Pulley Bearings

[Fordlover96]

I'm planning on doing the car's first 60k in about a month or two, and just wanted to know if the idler and tensioner bearings can be cleaned and repacked with grease. Have there been any of you out there who have been successful with this? I only ask because If I do need to buy new pulleys I'll need to save up some more money. And yes, they're not part of the 60k but, the idler is loud and I figure I'll fix both while im done there. Thanks.

 

[Shovert]

From my experiece in other areas. [ice machine repair] I would say. Usually by time a bearing is noise the balls and race are damaged.
Unsure if can be done. I have using a press, pushed a bearing out. Then take the bearing to a good auto parts. [someone like NAPA] They sometimes can cross the numbers, sell you a bearing, then can repress the bearing back in.
Never tried this on auto pulleys because usually the cost and work not worth the effort. [I just purchase a new pulley] I also do not know the cost and if can buy them for SHO motor. Maurice

 

[Fordlover96]

I guess loud really wasn't the right word. I meant, when I take the drive belt off and spin the idler pulley I can feel little roughness and alittle noise. But, you can't hear it with the engine running.

 

[Shovert]

http://www.shoforum.com/showthread.php?t=99674
Was looking around found this. Came back here to edit and decided to add after your comment. Maybe of some help. Maurice

 

[pjtoledo]

the trick is to get the side seals off without destroying them. I use a fine pointed pick on the inner part. I have also used needle oilers from model train stores to inject oil past the side seals.
fresh grease will help for quite a while, usually for months.

Perry

 

[rubydist]

back in the day, my dad had a large syringe with a needle that was large enough for grease to go through. we would fill the syringe with grease and carefully slip the needle under the lip of the seal and fill up the bearing with grease.

of course, if you ask for a syringe today, they will probably arrest you...

 

[LOUDSHO92]

Generally if they are making noise the damage has been done. I have not tried to fix the bearing.

We do have new bearings here: SHO Source

 

[Shovert]

I agree. That has been my experiece in other bearing. Face it the balls in the bearing and the race have damage [flat spots in bearing and dents in race]. True grease will help for awhile but what happens when it fails. Lucky you limp home, unlucky you get towed [money and agravation]. I say replace.
Just one warning when pressing in push on the outer race not the center. Otherwise will dent the race and will get to do it again. Maurice

 

[justin mccluske]

You can! I did this a few months ago on my pulleys. Mine started chattering and it turns out the bearing that was doing it is hard to get a hold of so I took the pulley off and pulled the seals to access the bearings and re packed them. My first attempt didn't solve the issue so I found a used pulley on eBay for 60$. I am very impatient so I tried packing my bearings again and this time it worked. The pulley I bought off eBay is still sitting in my garage and the noisy pulley is now quit and still on my car. When the noise started, I re-packed the immediately so maybe that's way I was able to save it.

 

[justin mccluske]

I also took my supercharger apart on my expedition and re-greased my bearings on that too even tho it did not make noise yet but after I was done it did spin a lot smoother.