This article will discuss how to pack wheel bearings (or any other bearings). While this is a simple procedure, it is VERY important to do it at regular intervals especially if you wade through deep water often. The pressure of the water will let it get into hubs (if you don’t have the double lip seals).
You'll need:
Bearing or EP (Exteme Pressure) Grease
LOTS of paper towels
A good hand cleaner (Lava is great)
Procedure
The object is to get grease into every nook and cranny of the bearing. A good bearing packer makes this job easier, not to mention cleaner, but it can be done by hand as follows:
Place a large glob of grease in one palm (left palm if you are right handed). Hold the bearing with the fingers of the right hand. The technique is to basically scrape the left palm with the bearing getting a little grease in at a time. You want to scrape the same part of the bearing through the grease until it oozes out of the other side of the bearing. Then turn the bearing a bit to get grease into the next part.
Keep turning and scraping until you have gotten all the bearing full of grease. Finish by smearing a coating of grease around the outside surface of the bearings. Then place the bearing in it's race after coating the race with some grease.