I picked up an all ***** clutch hub bearing today and noticed that it's a sealed bearing vs the stock unsealed bearing. Do I need to pop the seals out of this new bearing or leave it sealed up like it came?

 

did you pick it up new or used...?


call them or check their website yet...?

 

That's an oil lubed bearing, oil will seep into the grease anyway, those plastic seals aren't that tight. Oil fed bearings don't have insufficient or dried out grease issues, either. I'd take the seals off and clean out the grease, and oil the ***** before putting the basket together.

edit/add: Unless I'm thinking of the wrong thing, that bearing only spins with the clutch pulled anyway, a sealed grease bearing would probably last as long as the oil splashed one. I still like the unsealed bearing better in that application.

 

Think it's just a shield as designed. It keeps the chips out. Will let the oil in. I would not worry about it for sure. Toyota's 5 speeds have them in their transmission like that. Last one I was into, I rolled the seals out to inspect the bearings. They actually still had small traces of grease in there along with the 75-90 SYN Mobile. Had over 150K on them and still felt and looked good. Usually a shielded bearing has a metal shield but those in the Toyota were rubber. The one on the 5th gear overdrive was outside the oil area and that was what had failed.

 

I went ahead and reassembled it with the rubber seals in tact. Going to give it a go and see how it runs.