I am planning as maintenance on my 1984 Jaguar Van Den Plas to repack the wheel bearings and replace seals as general maintenance. No noise or leaks or excessive free play. The service manual I have is for a XJS but the grease volume per rear bearing set stated is 14cc per upright which just can't be. Should I attempt to measure what comes out of the hub assembly or would any one out there know a better weight by volume amount of wheel bearing grease to pack. I understand the volume of a shot glass.

Thank you in advance.

Larry Louton

 

I think I did this job back in 1990.

there is a removable plastic plug at the hub where you connect a grease gun, correct?

if yes, J.D. my mechanic in Nashville told me to "pump until grease spurts out the hole".

That's it. Clean the area of excess grease and plug the hole.

Never had any problem since.

if you need the factory Shop and Parts manuals, download all the .pdf sections free at my website: (Series 3, 1979-1987).

www.jagupgrades.webstarts.com

 

To clarify, the thread title mentions rear bearings. Is that what you intended?

Removing the rear bearings for repacking, and replacing the seals, is quite a big undertaking. The front bearings are relatively simple/typical.

For the rear it's as Jose says: remove the cap at the top of the hub and pump grease in. It's a bit of wish-n-hope that the grease actually gets into the bearings...but it's all you can do short of full hub disassembly.

Cheers
DD

 

if I remember correctly, there is a grease nipple or "grease valve" under the cap.

it was a piece of cake. Other than having to raise the rear and r & r the rear tires.

 

No, it's just a hole. No nipple or fitting.

However, the front hubs have a grease nipple/

Cheers
DD

 

ok, that is why the hole is filled until the grease comes out.

 

Thank you both for the volume of grease explanation. I will go forth with my maintenance plan with a lot more grease then originally thought of. Two years ago I replaced the front rotors with some drilled and slotted rotors, rebuilt the calipers and repacked the wheel bearings.. I don't think I used the volume of grease method that you have prescribed. I will take the big grease protector cap off and fill thru the zerk fitting until satisfied. I needed to rotate the tires anyways.

Thank you.

Larry Louton

 

Larry, there is no zerk fitting at the rear hubs, read Doug's reply above. It's just a hole. Just fill it up with grease using a hand grease cartridge and pump.

old Jaguars came with a grease pump made by "Tecalemit" in the tool kits. You can still get those today. But you have to fill them by hand.

 

I understand that the front hub sets have a grease fitting to fill or top-off with. The rear hub sets have a vent cap about a 1/2 inch diameter that has to be removed and the grease gun nozzle placed into position and grease forced into opening until full. Reinstall cap.

Thank you both.

Larry Louton

 

Just happened to have a photo of the rear hub grease port. You pry the plug off with a screwdriver (one of mine came right out the other took some work). Then use a flashlight to look down in there and you can see the axle shaft. Have both rear wheels off the ground and the transmission in neutral and the parking brake off and you can turn the wheel and see the shaft turn. I took the zerk fitting tip off my grease gun so the grease gun hose would let the grease squirt in faster. Put the grease gun hose down in there towards the rear and squirt some grease in. Then shove the hose toward the front and pump. Then stop and take something like a popsicle stick and get down in there and squish out any air bubbles. Turn the wheel one way and then the other while working with the popsicle stick. The goal is to get the grease all the way down in there and no trapped air bubbles. Then repeat those steps until completely full. Be sure to use the HIGH TEMPERATURE grease that is recommended for universal joints. Don't use the cheap "general purpose" grease.

Jeff

 

too late for me ! I pumped the kind of grease that comes in cartridges.

 

The good high temp grease comes in a cartridge. I had to search for it but the stuff I got cost a little more but says on the label that is high temp and suitable for universal joints. I read a post that said that is what you should use on universal joints and, boy, are there a bunch of universal joints in the rear of our car (drive shaft and two axle shafts). So the author of that post said just get the good stuff and leave it in your grease gun. It doses not cost that much more.

Jeff

 

I understand that the factory did not even mention lubricating the back hubs thereby implying that no maintenance was required. Obviously, spinning metal parts need lubrication and maybe the factory wasn't worried about us 35 plus years later. Wheel bearing grease would be best but I could only find it in a tub and trying to stuff it down in there didn't seem like a good idea.

A Jaguar expert told me he used “hub oil” rather than grease because it flows and would definitely get down where it is needed and grease may not flow all the way down there. I found that hub oil is used on semi trailer wheels so it must be pretty heavy duty. The catch is that if your seals are bad it will leak out and make a mess on the back of your wheels and the garage floor. On the plus side this is a good test of your seals. If they are good, no leaks. The brand I got says it helps condition the seals to prevent leaks. So I squirted it in, it’s consistency is like differential fluid. The next day one wheel looks great. The other had leakage. So I know one is good to go and well lubricated. The one that leaked didn't seem to be as much as I put in so maybe the hub oil fixed the seal. But then to be sure I put the high temp grease in that side as detailed above. So, hopefully both sides will be all set. Next time I have the wheels off I'll check on them. After a nice long drive yesterday I don't see any leaking on either side. The stuff I used can be found Here. Not recommending it, just something to think about.

Jeff

 

Thank you for every ones input and notes.

Larry Louton

 

I got lost in the Sonoma desert in 2004. It was 2:30 am. Total darkness and freezing.
I don't know how I ended there. I was on Hwy 1 from San Francisco trying to get to i-40E.

Very low on gasoline. I could see lights but far away, I must get there.

So I drove at 10 mph and threw it in neutral whenever the car rolled by itself.

I made it, there was an AutoZone open and a Shell station. I bought 2 qts. of oil, a gallon of coolant, and filled up the twin tanks good. The Shell station had a cafeteria so I had me a nice breakfast and when I finished, the town cop and others were admiring my new old 1965 Jaguar. And everybody had to see the engine. The cop laughing when I told him I had ended in the desert. "You were lucky" he said, "nobody drives there at night". He told me how to catch I-40 to Texas and off I went.

The moral of this story? No moral, I just thought I'd bore you all.