Modern Vespa

Heading out of town in a couple of weeks (to the 10K Scoots rally in Minneapolis). It's been a bit since I lubed the axles. Had the bearings repacked maybe 5 or so years ago, haven't greased them much, but I don't think I put more than 500 miles on it in that time.

After sorting out the grease gun, which I still feel like a novice at....did plenty of greasing growing up on the farm, but my dad did all the loading of the gun etc, and I'd hand it back to him if there was a problem.....

After getting the grease gun going, I put a dozen or so pumps of grease into the zircs, expecting old grease to be coming out somewhere.. but I can't quite figure out where, and it hasn't yet. So I'm wondering if I'm doing things right?

I think I saw somewhere that best practice is to repack the hubs annually, but that seems crazy for low mileage. Wonder what everyone else with a trailer is doing. What I don't want to be is the guy on the side of the road with his wheel off.....

So, any wisdom to share?

The trailers I have had would spill their grease behind the bearing. That is, toward the trailer, not toward the grease gun.

Thanks for the reply...that's what I'd be expecting. I gather )from poking around online ) that they take quite a bit more grease than the stuff I'm familiar with, where 3-4 pumps was more than enough to get squeezeout...

So, thinking that the dozen pumps I had in wasn't quite enough, I went for another dozen....and the cap popped off from the pressure. Clearly nothing was coming out the back.

Sending a photo of my hubs if that clarifies anything. Wondering if I should pop the wheel off and see how the insides look and be sure everything is right before the long trip.

When using these type grease caps, it's best to jack up the wheel/ tire your greasing. Now spin the wheel while pumping grease gun so a minute of air/ grease can hopefully squeeze past the rear hub grease seal.

just looking at the lug nuts and rereading your post I would be concerned with the age of the tires.

You already learned that the cap should be removed when adding grease.

I have a Dexter axle on my teardrop camper. It uses a similar zirc fitting to flush the old grease and replace with new. As kawzak suggested, jack up the trailer and spin the wheel while adding grease. Also, when I do this, I add grease until all the old grease is flushed out and new grease starts coming out. This takes about 1/2 a tube of grease on my axle (way more than a dozen pumps). It gets a bit messy so having a roll of paper towels handy is helpful. It's always a good idea to ensure that no grease is coming out the backside. If you have trailer brakes, the grease coming out the back can contaminate your brake shoes.

Replaced ~5 years ago. I was too!

But the zirc is ON the cap..Removing the cap removes the zirc!

OH! That's a different design than my axle. On mine the zinc just pokes through a hole in the cap. The zinc is threaded into the end of the axle which has passageways to carry the grease to the bearings. Having the zirc in the cap is a terrible way to get grease to the bearings. I'd be inclined to do it the old fashioned way and pack the bearings by hand.

That's what I'm thinking.

Not sure how often it needs it, assuming a couple hundred miles a year...

Zirc?

I always spelled it "zerk".

Must be a regional dialect.

Yeah, right. Naw, Just didn't check spelling. Or perhaps did at one point but remembered wrong.

Anyhow, decided to just repack the bearings. Then I can inspect everything and be sure the grease gets where it's needed. From my uneducated viewpoint, I can't see how putting extra grease at the edge of a bearing accomplishes much. More important, looking at my axles, I can't see where old grease even has a chance to be displaced.