greasing back axle

[Guest Mike Vandromme]

Hi again Could any one advise please on the need to grease the back axle on our Peugeot Talbot Express Kontiki? I note there are grease nipples on the top of the axle. With the trip to europe in the next few days. I wonder if this might be a worthwhile exercise to get the grease gun out. Derek could you poss come to my rescue again? Many thanks Mike Vandromme

[Guest Fred]

Under Chassis and Rear Axle, the owners handbook for my 1990 Kontiki states:- "The rear axle is provided with a grease nipple at either side. Apply grease every 5000 miles or at least once a year" No indication of the amount, or kind of grease is mentioned.

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Mike: I think all Kon-Tiki models, whatever their date of birth, have used an Al-Ko chassis. This chassis requires regular greasing of the rear-axle bearings for the trailing-arms that carry the independently suspended rear wheels. If this task is overlooked, the bearings can seize and the only effective cure may be a seriously expensive replacement axle. I believe the present Al-Ko axle requires greasing every 12,500 miles, but I know that the design of earlier axles differed and I'd follow Fred's advice of greasing every 5000 miles or annually for your 'van. You can grease the bearings individually, but you'll first need to support the motorhome's rear chassis so that the rear wheel on the side you are dealing with bears no weight and just hangs down at the end of its suspension travel. (Presumably this allows the nipple to line up with grease-retaining grooves in the bearing.) Any high-quality, high melting-point, general purpose automotive grease should be OK and, apparently, there is no danger of overfilling the bearing. It's suggested that 6 pumps from a pressure-gun should be sufficient per bearing but, if you are using a hand-gun, it will need to be a powerful one to be capable of forcing the grease in. (This will be particularly true if the bearings haven't been greased regularly and the grease in them has hardened.) As the exact position of the grease-nipple on Al-Ko axles seems to vary, I suggest you also make sure there aren't more than one nipple per bearing on your axle. If you search the forum on "grease" (omitting the quotes) you'll retrieve a list of postings of which three (10/2003, 08/2004 and 03/2005) are relevant to Al-Ko chassis axle-bearings.