theboondork's RV blog

Eleven dollars well spent

1/18/2017

Dust cap Installer tool

Today was another all day, cloudy, rainy, chilly, day. But despite that it was still a good day because the post office found my package and I picked it up this morning.

The gadget I ordered, and finally got is a Dust cap Installer Tool. If You're Not Familiar with a Dust cap, it's the silver cup like thing that covers the end of your axle where the bearings are. It's sometimes called a grease cap because it helps keep the grease in the bearings and not flinging all over your tires and wheels.

now dust caps were not a problem for me until I removed the decorative covers that go over the end of the axles of the Arctic Fox, as I mentioned in a previous post I like to feel how warm my bearings are when I stop to take a break. and the decorative covers prevented me from touching the area where the bearings are. By removing the decorative covers it allowed any dust cap That had fallen off to go flying down the interstate instead of being caught by the decorative cover.

all of my life I have installed dust caps by tapping them gently in with a hammer, and then putting a 2 x 4 over them and then beating on the 2 x 4 with a hammer until the dust cap Is seated in place. And for the most part that's worked out well. But while trying to put a couple of dust caps on the Arctic Fox while I was in Corpus Christi, they were very tight and my old method of installation ended up deforming them so they came off too easily and I ended up having to buy two new dust caps.

So I looked up the problem I was having on the Internet and found out they actually make a tool for installing dust caps...... who knew? So now I no longer have to beat on my dust caps with a hammer and deform them enough so that someday they fall off......Maybe

theboondork

The dust cap Installer tool, and a dust cap.

It pushes around the edges and doesn't deform it like a hammer on the top of it

It pushes around the edges and doesn't deform it like a hammer hitting the top of it.

This is what it looks like while using it. It was only 11 bucks but it's worth its weight in gold if you really need it.

2 Comments

Rex

1/19/2017 08:02:29 am

Have you checked into bearing buddies like they use on boat trailers? There you would not need dust covers and you could visually check the level of grease in the axle and even give it a squirt if it needs it. Please be careful on the road. Rex

theboondork

1/19/2017 09:21:03 am

Thank you for that information Rex. You sound like someone who's mechanically inclined, and likes to be able to understand their equipment, and know how to keep it running,

The Arctic Fox already has something similar to a Bearing Buddy I think they call it something like EZ Lube. And it works similar to a bearing buddy in that it has a Zerk fitting under the dust cap that enables you to lube the bearings. But the wheel hub is different than a normal hub because it has channels for the grease to get to the bearings and not just a big open space between the inner and outer bearings. It also has a different design of rear seal that prevents the grease from leaking into the brake drum and contaminating the brakes.

Actually I don't have to remove the dust cap to lube the bearings because the dust cap has a big hole in it with a rubber plug. So I just pull out the rubber plug and shoot a couple shots of grease into the zerk every once in a while. But sometimes I have to pull off the dust covers to check the brakes, or tighten the bearings a little bit and hopefully my new tool will help me do all that with less chance of screwing things up..... Yeah, right.

Tom

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Eleven dollars well spent

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