Bigger bearings on a c1500?

[Schurkey]

Schurkey, what about the inner seal seating? Is there a torque then loosen procedure?

I don't understand. There's no torque-then-loosen procedure for the seal next to the inner bearing. Only for the entire hub/rotor, bearings, seal, 'n' spindle assembly. That torque would be beyond tight enough to assure that the seal lips pop over the seal surface of the spindle. But I did forget to mention that the seal surface should be checked for wear, and properly cleaned-off, and the new seal lip lightly lubed.

I also forgot to mention that I clean the rotor/hub in the solvent tank, and wipe off the spindle thoroughly so there's ZERO chance of debris stuck in "old grease" in the rotor/hub's bearing area; and the hub gets a layer of grease in the bearing area in addition to the grease on the bearings. Ford specifies LB/GC, NLGI #2 Moly-enhanced (grey) grease; GM and many others use the typical LB/GC NLGI #2 "Red" stuff. There's a dozen colors, a hundred brands of grease, and a thousand formulations. As long as you're buying grease that's LB/GC rated, NLGI #2, and DO NOT MIX GREASES you pretty-much can't go wrong. For GM vehicles, the LB/GC #2 "Red" is entirely sufficient for packable wheel bearings.

I use Valvoline Red, except on Fords. There's plenty of other choices that work as well. This stuff used to say "GM--Chrysler--Imports" in bigger letters on the tub.

You must be registered for see images attach

The Valvoline "Ford" grease specs are not quite as good as the "Red"; but still completely acceptable, and still LB/GC rated...and it's what Ford wants.

You must be registered for see images attach

When it's me, I spin the nut off, remove the outer (little) bearing, put the nut back on the spindle. Then I pull the rotor/hub so that the outer race clears the nut. WHAM! I slide the rotor/hub off the spindle/nut so that the nut knocks the inner (big) bearing and seal out of the rotor/hub.

I've never damaged the inner bearing doing this. The seal "might" be re-usable, but I never do.

The new seal is carefully whacked into place with a hammer--unless the seal is unusually shaped. Some guys insist on using seal drivers, and that's fine. Aside from the "weird" seals, I've never needed to.

 

[Erik the Awful]

My truck goes through wheel bearings every 3-4,000 miles

I usually just get the bearings from autozone and it’s whatever their in store brand is.

I always buy Timken. Back when I had my RX-7 it would crack the rear wheel bearings every few thousand miles. Factory Mazda wheel bearings, too. I switched to Timken and never had a problem again.

If you get Timken and you still crack them, then you're doing it wrong.

 

[Hipster]

Whenever I replace a bearing I inspect the race. No scratches or grooves in it. Packing them by hand with just regular old red bearing grease. Cleaning the hub out best I can. And usually before I replace them the old bearings either make excessive noise or there is a significant amount of up and down play in the wheel

So repeatedly you've put new bearings on used races..... sometimes race damage is nearly at a microscopic level. I called it pre-load but Schurkey is correct. Your looking for a clearance number with tapered wheel bearings. Normally will stay with Timken brand if I can get my hands on them.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

So repeatedly you've put new bearings on used races..... sometimes race damage is nearly at a microscopic level. I called it pre-load but Schurkey is correct. Your looking for a clearance number with tapered wheel bearings. Normally will stay with Timken brand if I can get my hands on them.

I've done it a bunch and never had a problem. I do agree that just because you can't see or feel anything doesn't mean it's in spec.

 

[someotherguy]

First failure on high-mile original parts would almost be expected considering the circumstances. Second failure on low-mile replacements would have me considering procedure or other causes.

Richard

 

[Hipster]

I've done it a bunch and never had a problem. I do agree that just because you can't see or feel anything doesn't mean it's in spec.

If you paid a shop to do it would you voluntarily supply or pay for a second set of bearings to cover the shortcut you suggest? What about Labor? We look at things through a different perspective. Brakes, suspension, or steering not really where you want to take a shortcut. Saved $40 worth of races and on his 4th time. Might be time to do it right, correct parts and procedures.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

If you paid a shop to do it would you voluntarily supply or pay for a second set of bearings to cover the shortcut you suggest?

I'm not suggesting it. This was something I learned from my dad. He changed the bearings every time he did brakes, but left the races. So maybe it was something common back in the day, or I learned a bad shortcut.

I don't do it anymore, for one thing almost everything I own is a hub unit bearing.

 

[Hipster]

I'm not suggesting it. This was something I learned from my dad. He changed the bearings every time he did brakes, but left the races. So maybe it was something common back in the day, or I learned a bad shortcut.

I don't do it anymore, for one thing almost everything I own is a hub unit bearing.

Sometimes you can get away with it. Been like this 30 years but Lady Luck has never been on my side. Been through it a bunch with Ins co's on the collision work. Spec out new knuckle, rotor, wheel etc., and transfer the used hub/bearing because it looks and feels fine. No, It's suffered an impact. It might be fine.... for 500 mi.

 

[Erik the Awful]

sometimes race damage is nearly at a microscopic level.

I disagree. The roller bearings in our trucks aren't rocket science and have quite a bit of tolerance. But if you have other evidence and experience, I'm open to listening.

I'm not suggesting it. This was something I learned from my dad. He changed the bearings every time he did brakes, but left the races. So maybe it was something common back in the day, or I learned a bad shortcut.

Back in the day it was very common to replace just the bearings because the races didn't wear as badly. You can put new bearings on an old race or old bearings on a new race and not have problems. Putting an old bearing on a different old race was a recipe for noise until it wore in, and then it could be too loose.

When Japanese metallurgy got good the price on bearings and races dropped to the point that there was no need to reuse races. It was nearly as cheap to get a whole new set. However, there are still manufacturers that will sell bearings and races separately, especially when you get into larger or more expensive bearings.

I have to fight this fight pretty often, dealing with supply chain for aircraft engines. We have one vendor who labels their bearing sets "Each", when they're really sets. It should have stated in the contract that they label them "Set". Now every time we receive a shipment they get sidelined for being labelled incorrectly and I have to tell the warehousers to go ahead and accept them with a pen-and-ink change to the label. The problem is that if the vendor decided to be a dirtbag they could start shipping us just the bearing without the race, and it would be labelled correctly, but we'd be overpaying for the bearing and we'd have to buy the races separately. The other downside is that mechanics don't think of bearings and races being separate, so we'd have more downtime because mechanics would forget to order the races.

 

[Schurkey]

I worked for a national chain-store auto-service department early in my career. I was "low-man on the totem pole" and I knew it.

We'd get a new rotor/hub with bearing races to replace a rotor that was too thin, and new inner and outer bearing sets. I was told to knock the new races out of the new rotor/hub, so that I could put the new races that came with the bearing set into the rotor/hub.

I thought this was insane...but that's what my boss wanted, so that's what I did.

And there was no way on Earth we'd have replaced bearings with each brake job. Our customers (farmers especially) would have had a hissy-fit at throwing away perfectly-good bearings. Later on, the shop was ordering "import" bearings which at that time were coming from Eastern Europe, I think. Not China...yet. So the used bearings we'd have been removing would have been better than the new ones we'd have put in.