Started to hear the "ghosts in 3 part harmony" a couple of weeks ago and assumed I was in for a centre support donut and bearing replacement. Read some stuff in the archives and came across a post describing a lubrication procedure involving removing the support and lubing the bearing by removing the dust cover on the bearing and actually packing the grease in the bearing. Before ordering parts I figured I better check the U-joints etc. and decided to drop the support and check the bearing. Turns out the U-joints must have been replaced recently (I've had this car for about a year) as they were tight and looked new. The donut looked newish too, as did the bearing, however it barely turned by hand and when I popped the dust guard off (I know, it's a sealed bearing but I was curious to try, given the experience of the brickboard told me I could) the grease was sparse and solid and the bearings were rusty. So I greased it up and immediately it spun without much resistance. I kept spinning it and replaced the old rusty solid grease with fresh stuff. So, I put everything back together and no more ghosts.

Ron
93 245 320,000 km
near Brantford, ON, Can

Every winter, mine starts to howl. A squirt of motorcycle chain oil from a aerosol can solves it for another year. YMMV

Marten

Did you have any trouble getting the dust cover back in place?

I have never actually removed the cover, but instead use aerosol grease (LPS3). I lift the cover with a dental pick enough to get the straw in place and spray away. I consider it part of my maintenance schedule. I do that every two years when I have the car on jackstands to flush the brake system.

Randy

I've heard increasingly load whining from underneath lately after it rains or on damp cool mornings. So while I had it up on my ramps to change the oil ( 5-30 Pennziol Snth. ) I gave all driveshaft components a good shot of PB Blaster. Figure since the bearings are sealed, thin oil will help more. So far no more noise. Did'nt touch a dust cap, just suirted everywhere.

It did not snap into place, that's for sure, so I might be back in there in a few months to check on things. The donut was in great shape so may help guard the bearing from the elements.

Ron

I'm going to do this myself the next time I hear the symphony. What kind of grease did you use? Also, what kind of grease is in other bearings, like the alternator? Wheel bearing grease? Moly grease? Anyone?

I used what I had, which was a moly grease that claimed to be good for high moisture conditions.

Ron

Don't lube the bearings in the alternator. Just find someone in your area who rebuilds alternators and when they become noisy have them replace the bearings. Or in the alternative swap out the alternator and put in a remanufactured one. Everytime I've used sprays on an alternator it has ended in disaster.

I read on here a while back about using a grease gun with a needle tip. I used regular bearing grease. The needle tip slipped beneath the dust cover so I didn't need to remove it. I didn't have the noise yet, but the donut had fallen apart and the bearing didn't turn smoothly. That's been 3 months and 6,000 miles ago.
--
1993 Volvo 240 AW70L 221,XXX miles and counting

I half-prise back the cover every 100,000 miles and inject a few drops of oil.
It's lasted 400,000 miles.