[Archived]

Peter,

Because of the decorative hub caps I have never put the IR gun on the axtual hub iself, but I have taken the temps on the wheel close to the hub. Like the tire temps I really can’t say the temps have been anything specific, but I think around 125 to 135 is what I have seen at that point although it is highly impacted by outside air temps.

But like the tire temperatures, the actual temperature is less important than consistency. I expect the temps to be the same if taken at the same relative point. I have not bothered to take the wheel temp on my current coach because the hub caps extend over the wheel lug nuts and I can’t shoot the temps anywhere close to the center of the wheel or at the hub itself.

[Archived]

Thanks Jon ,just asking because when I drove coach down for wheel seals ,when I touched the hub cap it was warm,when hub cap was off end of axle was warm ,when we pulled axle the end of axle spline part was hot ,we check oil it was full ,brakes had a little oil on them did not use brakes much ,so was just wounding maybe the bearings where to tight ,they where waiting for hub gasket then I will drive it I agree on temps being the same with same conditions

[glen]

Hot to the touch is normal ,especially on hot days. Amsoil claims a normal temp is around 203 degree’s and then goes on to explain the decrease in temperature using their product. I’m sure it all depends on weight and ambiant temperature.

How hot was it Peter? Could they just touch it and then say it’s hot? Could you leave your fingers on the hub without burning them. In other words, define “hot.”

[gary]

I could not hold hand on end of axle spline did not burn hand but u could not hold it for very long,the part I was holding was the end of axle shaft that goes into crown and pin.Just so u know it was 20 degrees out when I drove it down there no wind road dry just for laughs small breeze here is 30mph windy is 45 to 55 mph

[Archived]

Unless we drive without the decorative hub caps we really have no way to shoot the temps of the hubs. So probably the best way when shooting temps is to get as close to the hub on the wheel, which in my two previous coaches was at the bolt circle. The temperature itself is not important but if the temps on one side of the coach are significantly different than the corresponding temps on the opposite side it becomes something that must be investigated. The same holds true for tires. As long as I start out with all my pressures correct based on the weight each axle carries as long as the tire temps are consistent I am OK.

One thing I have noticed over time is that if the tire pressures cold agree with the pressure charts Michelin uses, my tire temps are remarkably close to one another.

[Archived]

I will leave hub caps off and check both sides I agree it’s about both sides if one is hotter than the other it needs to be checked

[Peter]

If this is your first drive axle oil seal, you’re probably doing fine; what’s your mileage? I am the self-proclaimed expert on rear axle temps/wheel seals. I’ve averaged 70,000 miles/seal over 300,000 miles.

Both of my buses had/have diff oil temp gauges. Up to 250 seems to be fine for synthetic. I’ve run as high as 300 during hot, high speed towing and that’s when I had the most problems with seals. As the diff oil breaks down from use, temps will escalate. I STRONGLY recommend full synthetic fluid (axle AND trans) and if you don’t have a temp gauge, I would use a change interval for synthetic of 50,000 with severe use and 100,000 with normal use.

[Greg]

Thanks 183000 miles I am putting in synthetic

[Rodger]

I’m a little uncomfortable characterizing the average life of a seal as 70,000 miles.

I have had two coaches that each had about 250,000 miles on them when I sold them. My memory isn’t good enough to recite how many total seals I changed, but I doubt if I changed more than a total of 4 or 5 seals on both coaches.

So over 500,000 coach miles and assuming 5 seals would it be better to say we could expect to change a total of 2 or 3 seals every quarter million miles? In the context of seal life all I could say was I could expect to change one seal every 80,000 to 140,000 miles.

On both of my previous coaches most of the seals on the coaches had 250,000 miles on them and they were not leaking.

[Greg]

Bye the way if u need work done the cat truck shop a few miles east of chenynne wy on I 80 does great work

[Archived]

I didn’t intend to claim the average life of a seal to be 70K. Simply reporting my experience under severe/extreme use.

[Archived]

Don’t worry I did not take that way thank for info

[Ron]

The Railroad issues crews a “Templestik” that is used to stroke the end cap of the axle if an axle has been caught on a Detector or seen to be questionable. The stik is stroked over the axle hub and if a smear appears, the axle is determined by definition to be defective. These are roller bearings and the older friction bearings that used a wad of oil soaked cotton are mostly obsolete and been taken out of service. Perhaps there should be a templestik of some sort created for us or trucks for that matter?

[Peter]

I think we have to accept that our coaches rarely lose wheel bearings and when they do it would appear they were run dry.

The two instances I know of were when seals had been replaced and the bearings were run dry because the hubs had not been filled with oil. Both were drive axle bearing failures and both had leaky seals replaced with the buses released from service less than 10 miles prior.

If a hub seal leaks, leading to the loss of oil in the differential or the hub the result is usually an ugly mess that is hard to ignore.

While a tempstick makes sense, for one to be useful on our coaches the operator would have to go to the trouble to remove the hubcap. By that time the temp may have gone down. My somewhat cynical sense of this is the operator that cannot see the black grease and oil from a leaking hub seal, and react to that before the bearing runs dry is likely to not even want to go to the effort of checking fluid levels (or having them checked) or using a tempstick.

The benefit of checking temps at the wheels is not so much to catch a possibly dry or failing bearing, but to catch a dragging brake.

[Jim]

Got coach home temps where good did both sides both where leaking there would have been problems if I did not catch it early like I did glad to have it done bearings where good to Thanks everybody for the help