Re: manufacturers

[Simon Favre <simon@domain.elided>]

This would not be a good idea. Grease fittings are used where the goal
is to pack the cavity to capacity under hydraulic pressure from the
grease gun. If wheel hubs had grease fittings, every ham fisted grease
monkey in the world would fill the hubs all the way, which would not
be a good thing. Grease would pour out and probably slick up the brakes.
Putting grease directly into the bearing would require having a hole in
the outer race, which could cause it to crack under load.

There are a few exceptions to this I'm aware of. Some boat trailers have 
bearings that come with such a fitting, because it's vital to pump some
grease thru them after each use, because of the water. The grease fitting
on driveshaft splines is another. If you fill it to capacity, the first
time you go over a bump, the drivshaft compresses and squirts out half
the grease you pumped in. The grease doesn't really get into the splines
very well, either.

Carson Damm wrote:

>Why don't manufacturers design wheel bearing areas so you can grease
>them with a grease gun? Seems it would be easy to do on paper and make
>routine servicing more likely.

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