How To Determine Replace Vs Clean/repack

I’m in the process of going thru the hubs on my Bantam T3-C in preparation for a camping trip this summer. I have no idea of the history of maintenance on it. I pulled everything today and to me they look fine. No marks on the races, nothing loose or broken and no excessive leaks out of the rear seals. In fact nothing even really what I’d consider fresh and I’ve pulled it probably 3,000 miles, much of it at 70-75. I haven’t yet really cleaned the bearings but a good wiping they look fine. When I have pulled it, I stop and feel the hubs fairly frequently and have never felt any heat. The inner bearings could have used some more grease but still looked good, just very dark. The outer ones had plenty of grease and that is probably due to at some point a PO added a jerk in the cap. Not sure if it really gets grease in the bearings that way, especially the rear one, but it was full of fresh grease including mine. They are Timpkin made in the USA so probably older ones when things were made better. Thoughts on clean, inspect and repack if no marks or flat spots on bearings, vs replace with new.

 

I'ld repack and move on. The bearings on a tc3 are huge compared to what's under my 3500lb camper. They are the same as the dana 25 but don't stop, steer, or carry much weight (half the time unloaded)

 

You probably have better bearings than you can buy today.

 

These were my basic thoughts and last night I decided to do just that. Just new rear seal and nuts that had the typical gouges from PO's not using the proper tool.

 

Right if they even look to be in fair condition then they are still good for many thousands of miles. Cleaning and repack is always good. In fact the only way to determine exact condition is via full cleaning and inspection.