yes, push in some fresh grease and leave 'em be.

new ones you can get now may not be as good as originals.
I expect 'some' up-down play at each rear tire, parking brake off of
course.

anything like 1/16ths of an inch, up-down,  is acceptable to me.  (
that's like .060 " ) .
1/8th is gettin' to be a bit.
beyond that ..they're due.
you could check the tightness of the rear big nuts I suppose.

On 4/27/2012 2:54 PM, Gene P wrote:
> Getting ready to do CV joint maintenance - no boot or noise problems,
> just routine.
> Thinking I would replace rear wheel bearings while I was mucking around
> in there.  But ...
> No apparent issues with bearings, no noise, wiggle at 12 & 6, 9 & 3, NO
> play.  I'd be doing this based on age/miles (87 hardhat, about 145K).
> So the question: Preempt now, or is there an argument to push some fresh
> grease in to them and leave these *original bearings* alone until they
> act up?
>
> Opinions requested...
>