CARE & MAINTENANCE
Re-tighten your coupling unit after a period of time or after a good off-road trip. Looseness in your hub assembly or seizing of
your carrier may be a sign you need to replace your bearings or that the 1” Nyloc nut in under the cap in your hub assembly has
come loose and needs to be tightened.
Always be sure to use the anti-seize when installing and re-installing your hub cover, otherwise removal will be very difficult!
Remove your hub cover and check inside your hub assembly regularly. If you live in a dry climate and off-road a “standard”
amount, we would recommend you check your hub assembly at least once per year. If you live in a wet climate, humid climate,
or a climate with extremes, we would recommend you check your hub assembly quarterly or with season changes. Climates with
heavy salt content are some the harshest conditions on your components and may need to be checked more frequently.
When installing and/or re-installing bearings be sure to use a white lithium marine-style grease for best results.
Once you have removed the cap, check the grease. Bad grease will be black or have lost most of its original color, will show signs
of moisture, and/or will have become “chunky”. If this is the case, remove your bearings and re-grease them.
Check your bearings. The bearing cage can become corroded over time and break. Looseness or seizing in your hub and carrier
assembly may be a sign that you need to replace your bearings.
Races generally do not need to be replaced unless you can see they have broken or are heavily corroded. Races can be knocked
out and replaced if/when needed.
Replacement parts. You can purchase a rebuild kit directly from us at Expedition One, however you can also find most of your
hub assembly components at your local automotive/hardware store. Replacement part #’s can be found below for your
convenience:
Dual Swing Arm Carriers
Grease Seals: PN 5121
Bearings: LM48548 or A5
Stiffness, binding, or rattling in your tire carrier arm may be an indicator for maintenance needed on the bearings in your hub
assembly. This could be caused by a number of factors including environment, impact, lack of/type of grease, corrosion, and/or
over-tightening.
Our carriers are designed for easy maintenance with easy removal of the hub cap to access the hub assembly. Zinc fittings are
generally not necessary, due to ease of access. Wear components and replacement parts can be easily sourced from your local
auto parts store and often have a variety of brands/pricing. The bearings used are a high-speed/high heat wheel bearings, but
for our applications are being used under moderate loads and low speed ( 0 rpms), so they will typically last a long time.
Instructions for bearing checks and maintenance:
•Loosen your hub cover cap. If anti-seize was used this should easily be done by hand or with a simple grip tool.
•Observe the top bearing. If there is a lot of moisture, discoloration, or corrosion you could have a grease problem. We
recommend using a water-resistant, marine grade grease for this reason.
•If you do not see a lot of moisture or discoloration and do not want to un-bolt the arm you can first try to pack the hub
assembly with a lot of marine-grade grease and cycle it through by moving the arm back and forth. This may fix your problem.
If movement is not improving with additional grease and cycling or you believe you have broken bearings continue by unbolting
and removing the arm.
•Take out the top bearing and examine it. If it rolls and does not show signs of damage or coming apart then it is probably ok.
Check the cage holding the bearings is in-tact. If you see any damage or broken parts you will need to replace the bearing.
•The bottom bearing is held in by the grease seal. You want to gently remove the grease seal by using a hammer and a tool such
as a center punch, aul, or screwdriver to gently tap out the grease seal so you can access the bottom bearing.
•Observe and examine the bottom bearing for signs of damage. Again, If the bearing does not roll or if parts are popping out or
there is damage to the cage you will want to replace the bearing.
•If the bearings are rolling and are just dirty or gummy, you can use WD40, brake cleaner, or penetration spray to clean them
out.
Be sure to re-pack with a lot of marine-grade grease when replacing cleaned and/or used bearings and use anti-seize when re-
installing your hub cover cap. Caps should be snug but be careful not to over-tighten, as this can put too much pressure on the
bearing cage and cause bearings to fail. We do not provide torque specs, as the exact right tightening for your application can be
hard to gauge with the Nyloc nut. We recommend you check to feel the Nyloc has been tightened and that the cap is snug and
not to tighten beyond that point.