Solution for failing Raleigh front hub bearings

Well, I got this apart, and they look good enough that I am
going to try just repacking them. Turned out to be 10 3/16"
balls per side, by the way.

Got my trusty Wal-mart marine grease.

Now, how much of the hub am I supposed to fill with grease.
Just put some on the bearing itself, or all the way through
the middle of the hub, along the axle? What's the easiest
way to reassemble grease, balls, cones with minimal chasing
after lost balls?

Thanks,
Mike

Insert the axle. Pack the race full of grease, and load in the balls.
Put on the cone finger tight to hold in the balls, then turn over the
wheel and do the same for the other side. Adjust the cones for proper
tightness.

You don't need grease in the middle of the hub; there is no bearing
there. But it won't hurt a thing to pack the whole hub full.

For more detail, see http://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/hubs.html

--
Ted Bennett

ugh - the old bearings are elliptical not round
might as well throw the hub away
grease goes into the fridge to cool down and thicken bewtter to hold
the bearings in when you screw up and turn the hub upside down when
heide walks over bends over and pullsher bikini bottom down
continuing in this vein
locktite one side nuts/cones - pick a side for both front and rear -
the RIGHT side -more on this later - allow lock to cu it has a very
very bad habit of not curing and coming loose if you rush it - try the
top of the water heater or a naked light bulb - using vicegrips offf
course
then wrap the other axle threaded end with one layer paper - seam along
axle's long axis -tape seam -twist inserting end (gotta leave enough
apaer to do that) and insert past grease/bearings with bearings already
packed into the cold grease on the other side.
holding nutted end frimly against cone/bearings/grease
pull paper out, loctite threads (having already loctited the inner
nut/cone threads) plane ahead hear always
then tighten to spec - short of bearing rumble

In .com writes:

then wrap the other axle threaded end with one layer paper
- seam along axle's long axis -tape seam -twist inserting
end (gotta leave enough apaer to do that) and insert past
grease/bearings with bearings already packed into the cold
grease on the other side. holding nutted end frimly against
cone/bearings/grease pull paper out, loctite threads
(having already loctited the inner nut/cone threads) plane
ahead hear always then tighten to spec - short of bearing
rumble

Well, I finally disassembled the hub this weekend, and the
races were not in as bad shape as I expected. So I cleaned
everything up and repacked it with my trusty marine grease
and new balls (10 x 3/16" per side). Works, not like new,
but as well as it ever has, which is pretty well.

Didn't do the loctite and paper bit, as I had no trouble at
all threading the nuts and cones off or on. Just dripped a
bit of oil on them before assembly. Misjudged the amount of
grease necessary, and wound up with a lot of overflow when I
threaded on the cones.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Mike