Any suggestions on the service of rear drum hub bearings? I am getting some noise at 120K and wonder what is best plan - repack, replace with OEM (expensive) or aftermarket (cheap). I have the original shoes, so I will replace those anyway. Any thoughts?

 

If there making noise they should probably be changed. Use only high quality bearings for long-term results. You could repack them with synthetic bearing grease. Just clean them first with thinner and thoroughly dry before repacking. I repacked mine and they're doing fine. Make sure to torque the axle nut down to 134 foot pounds. That's very tight if you don't have a big torque wrench. Best of luck, Clay

I should mention that accessing the rear bearings is very easy. Just remove the rear wheel and the axle nut and tap the hub off the axle. Half of the bearing will remain on the axle the other half will be inside the hub you just removed. Check the bearings for pits and wear. If their bad, you will have to change them. You can repack a damaged bearing and will work for a time but you will need to keep and eye on it in the future since it will be prone to failure.