Bearing water seal lubrication

[pearce_jj]

Right, bearing change take two… firstly cleaned up the shaft a bit more:

Then wiped over with grease for protection:

And grease in the rubber seal ready for fitment:

The squeak has now gone and the drum rotates noticably more easily now 🙂

Cheers!

[hopper]

Re: Bearing water seal lubrication

My experience on a Hotpoint wm64:

Lubricant suggested by local repair shop / parts supplier – vaselene. Tried it, bearings lasted a couple of years or so.

Next time I tried ordinary LM grease – similar result.

Next time I had a think and decided to experiment. I noticed that the alloy bearing housing in the back of the plastic tub was pitted where the oil seal was.*

It looked as though water might have entered between the seal and the housing as well as /instead of via a knakered lip. Also had to grind out one of the outer races – corroded in solid.

I decided to fit the new seal into the housing with Fernox LSX – a plumber’s silicone sealant. It’s adhesive but engineered so the joint can be easily broken if required.

I cleaned up the housing with a fine abrasive and acetone and pressed in the new bearings. I think I set the bearings in LM grease. I seem to remember cleaning the grease off the end of the housing before applying a smear of LSX. It certainly makes the seal easier to fit.

I decided to try lubricating the seal lip with silicone grease – the thin type used for lubricating o ring seals not the high tack stuff used on drainage system joints. think I used some I got from RS Components.

I was a little worried because this a really a thick oil, not a grease in the oil plus lithium soap sense that the seal was probably designed for. I was concrerned that the increased drag might burn out the lip at 1200 rpm spin.

I cleaned up the brass ring on the shaft with brasso. It looked ok so I greased it and the seal with silicone grease and reassembled. That was several years ago. Your mileage may vary. If it breaks you get to keep both halves.

*That’s what it really is, folks – totally unsuitable for the application – sooner or later the detergent will take out all the lubricant and the seal will burn up. Our old Hoover going back 30 years or so had a proper seal – the bearings lasted the life of the machine – 17 years until the drum split. It’s the water ingress that ruins the bearings.

[pearce_jj]

Interesting. Turns out there are special greases for this application like “Amblygon TA30/1”. As said above the grease needs to work at 90*C+ and be resistant to water and steam and also alkaline. I’ve gone with the small pot from our hosts… no detail on what it actally is was included unfortunately.

[quickwash]

Re: Bearing water seal lubrication

Hi pearce_jj,

I’m sure you will have been supplied with the correct grease for the job 😀

Good luck with your repair,

kind regards

quickwash :plug:

[pearce_jj]

Yes not doubting that… just interested in what it was 🙂

Running well thus far – back to like when it was new, about 68dB(A) spinning at 1600rpm full load measured from 1m in front of it.

[quickwash]

Re: Bearing water seal lubrication

:tup: to that!

[Author]

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