Mainwheel bearing service / greasing?

At 19:55 20 March 2018, jfitch wrote:
On Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 3:21:24 AM UTC-7,
wrote:
My friend who has a 26E told me he recently disassembled his main
wheel
bearing as the wheel was noisy when landing, he felt it lacked grease
and
after regreasing and reassembling he reports the wheel is much
quieter.
In my (31) Maintenance manual there is no mention of greasing the
main
bearing in the Lubrication Sheme (Section 8)
But in section 2 (Description of equipment) there is only this:

2.5.4 Maintenance of Landing Gear and Wheel Brake
Main Landing Gear
The maintenance of the main wheel is confined to visual inspection of
the tire, wheel rim, disc brake and shock absorber element. If badly
soiled, the landing gear should be cleaned immediately.
Also: do not forget to clean and lubricate the wheel bearings and
shock
absorber bearings.

Does anyone have experience with this?
Forgive me if this has been a topic in the past, I looked through the
site and the Technical site but could not find anything there.
Regards
Ed Marel
31047

If you have a Cleveland wheel their service manual (rather than the
glider manufacturer's manual) tells you to service the bearings and seals
annually or every 500 wheel miles which ever comes first. (Does
anyone record their wheel miles...?)

As I recall (and my recall is getting worse each year....) the ASH26E
has
sealed deep groove ball bearings. They should not be lubed, but rather
replaced when beyond their service life.

I would hazard a guess that by the time almost ANYONE gets 500 wheel miles on a sailplane wheel bearing, the airframe is long gone, even if someone rebuilds a 2-33 a few times (reference another thread about a "new" 2-33 for $75,000US).
;-).

At 21:45 20 March 2018, Charlie M. UH & 002 owner/pilot wrote:
I would hazard a guess that by the time almost ANYONE gets 500 wheel
miles
on a sailplane wheel bearing, the airframe is long gone, even if someone
rebuilds a 2-33 a few times (reference another thread about a "new" 2-33
for $75,000US).
;-).

Not true, actually. Our ASK21s do over 2000 launches per year, and have
done for the past 20 years. If you count tow-outs from the hangar,
retrieve to the launch point after landing, etc then 500 miles per year is

achievable. We look at the bearings each year, but we don't work out the

mileage!