Is a sealed bearing ruined if it's opened up?

[masospaghetti]

When removing my front bearing/hub from the spindle, the inner race of the bearing moved some. I could see the balls inside the bearing.

I was careful to not allow contamination to enter the bearing and packed it when some good Mobil wheel bearing grease, then pressed the inner race back into the bearing. It's tight now and it rotates smoothly with no noticeable play.

Am I asking for trouble here by reusing this bearing? As I understand it, the bearing's preload is set by the axle nut anyway. It was replaced about a year ago (Moog) so I hate to trash it.

[cp[mike]]

personally I don't think you will have a problem, if you were truly careful about not getting any dirt in it. The problem is that the grease may have touched the dirt on the exterior of the bearing while it was separated... like you didnt drop anything in there, but an edge may have touched itself and gotten dirty. Unless the bearing was new and clean, it probably had some road dirt on it? Anyway if it is sealed back up, I doubt anything that got in would be that catastrophic, assuming nothing else is getting in. I would feel pretty comfortable running it, personally, but I would keep an eye on it over time just to make sure. But I wouldn't go replacing it just because people say "once its opened, its bad"

[lbus9168]

Whenever i open Sealed bearing like that, I always remove every single bearing, clean everything completely with liquid degreaser, Transfer it to a white microfibre towel, clean it perfectly, then immediately soak it in the required grease, and repack it myself. works excellently for axles. im sure The wheel bearing would be fine if you just put it back on, but thats how i do it.

[masospaghetti]

Thanks for the replies, I really do appreciate it. I'll run with it and keep an eye on it.