tapered roller bearings

[lowgear]

When I put in the new wheel bearings (tapered) they tightened up before I could get any preload on them. What I found on mine was the inner races were making contact preventing the rollers from seating. I took the bearings apart and ground off .010 off one of the races so that the rollers could seat. If anyone else has replaced their wheel bearings check to see if you still have a very slight amount off play in your wheel if you do this could be the problem. Tapered wheel bearings need a slight amount of preload for the rollers to seat if they don't it will ruin the new bearing very fast.

[dirtydog]

I had same problem with my tapered bearings. I don't have machine shop like Lenny so was afraid to grind races and went back to original bearings. Good luck with yours!

[bruhaw]

What tapered bearings did you use? Ones from Casey at JMC - S31 is the part number I believe. I just put the bearings in my hubs this past week but have not installed as I was rebuilding both front and rear diffs. Going to put it all together this week sometime but wondering if I will run into same problem as you two with the new bearings.

[charlie]

Hey bruhaw

Question for you ?? I had my front and rear diffs rebuilt havnt driven it yet that's tomorrow. What I am wondering is if you had a hard time getting your rear locker to work right?? Meaning when I first put it together I didn't get much movement in the pin at the diff so I lubed the cable the best I could and pull the pin with a pair of pliers and it was moving put not like the front. I put it all back together and I could engage the locker by using the cable but the Pin did not go back on its own! When I had the wheels off the ground and went from lock to unlock as Spinned the wheels the pin would sit back as it should and lock as it should. But it had to be spinning pin did not just slide in. So I pulled the pin with plies till I had full engagement marked pin with a marker and hooked the cable back up! I got it adjusted to what I think is full engagement put pin doesnt go back in I need to help it any ideas

[lowgear]

For anyone that has or is going to replace the wheel bearings to the tapered ones and would like some advice give me a call 330-646-8327. The bearings are the ones from Casey the #B31 bearing. These bearings are no longered made and I beleive the company that did make them is no longer in buisness. I don't know how many are left but for those that have T2's or T4's and plan on keeping them I would get your replacements as soon as you can, who knows when they will been gone. I can only give advice on what I have done to make them right. It is not hard to do just takes some work.

[Guest Lenny]

I'm assuming that the outter races are back to back in the center and the inner races with their rollers come in fron the sides and face each other. It's very important that they are this way. If your bearings are coming as a dual bearing with a once piece outter race, this is the way they will be. If the outter races are seperate, you could always put a shim in between them to take up the slack too. This would have the same effect as what Lowgear has done. His approach is perfectly fine too. Just be sure to rince the bearings clean after grinding on them. You don't need to grinde them on a lathe or blanchard type grinder, you can free hand grind them.

Lenny

[Kinarfi]

I just got 4 new roller fro Casey, he got a bunch of them for a better price and the price was better than when I first talked to him. Here's a video of how loose thing are right now, I'm thinking I may have to have my bearing holders welded and rebored or else the bearings really really need to be replace.
Kinarfi

[rocmoc]

goindeep or Lenny, about Kinarfi's hub issuse.

This maybe the biggest future upgrade / replacement after-market part required. This will effect everyone sooner or later. Someone needs to either make the repair available or produce a replacement hub. Talk to Lenny, he modified his a LONG time ago.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Guest Lenny]

If the new bearings are loose by only one or two thousands, I would contact Loc-Tite and see if they make a bearing seat compound that will take high pressures. If they do, this could solve the problem. If its looser then that, I would talk to a plater to see what they can do. I would think that a plating would need to have a compressive strength of 20,000 to 25,000 psi to be strong enough.. This would be better then welding and grinding which would be a last resort but probably a little expensive. Getting a nice clean weld on the ID with it being as deep as it is would take a good welder. I would be inclined to hire a professional welder that, that is all they do. Hard to find a really good welder but they are out there, call around to people that hire out their production welding. Don't have the machine shop do it. Let them do the machining. I would think that an interferrance fit of about .0005 to .0010 would be enough but talk to a bearing supplier or look it up on google. What ever you do, don't hammer the bearings in place unless all the hammering blows are on the outter race edge only. Pressing in is better,

Lenny

[Kinarfi]

Just got off the phone with Henkel who makes Loctite and they suggested 680 http://www.henkelna.com/industrial/product-search-1554.htm?nodeid=8797928521729 or 638 http://www.henkelna.com/industrial/product-search-1554.htm?nodeid=8797921640449 . The 680 has a slightly higher PSI rating.

[Kinarfi]

The bearing come pre greased, is there any reason NOT to add more bearing grease to the bearing?

[rocmoc]

The bearing come pre greased, is there any reason NOT to add more bearing grease to the bearing?

Taking a chance of damaging the seal! It is a sealed bearing.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Kinarfi]

not sealed to where it would pressure, additional grease would added by hand and fingers pushing it in. Photos coming tomorrow, if I don't forget.

[dirtydog]

You can't put too much grease in wheel bearing if doing it by hand. My new tapered brgs from Casey were also loose. Inner race was too wide. I wanted to ride so put them aside and bought originals which are working fine. Disassembled and packed the heck out of them before installing. Future project will be grinding tapered brgs to make zero tolerance, zero preload. Good luck Kinarfi, I hope it's the bearing and not the hub.

[Guest Lenny]

You can't put too much grease in wheel bearing if doing it by hand. My new tapered brgs from Casey were also loose. Inner race was too wide. I wanted to ride so put them aside and bought originals which are working fine. Disassembled and packed the heck out of them before installing. Future project will be grinding tapered brgs to make zero tolerance, zero preload. Good luck Kinarfi, I hope it's the bearing and not the hub.

Bearings will last longer and take much higher loading with preload.

Lenny

[Kinarfi]

You can't put too much grease in wheel bearing if doing it by hand. My new tapered brgs from Casey were also loose. Inner race was too wide. I wanted to ride so put them aside and bought originals which are working fine. Disassembled and packed the heck out of them before installing. Future project will be grinding tapered brgs to make zero tolerance, zero preload. Good luck Kinarfi, I hope it's the bearing and not the hub.

I'm sure I will need some loctite, the ball in the bearings that were in there when I bought it broke in two and crumbled, and the hub wasn't real tight when I replaced them, I did use red loctite, but I think what I used was for bolts, when I put these in, I WILL be using 860.

Question for other who got bearings from Casey, can you pull the inner races out with out damage, it's my guess that there is a piece of plastic holding them in.

[bruhaw]

I got bearings from Casey a couple months ago and had the same problem. I didn't have any preload at all and did have some play in the wheel. Not nearly as much as you Kinarfi but a little. I ended up taking one hub and all the bearings to a friend who does auto repair and has a machine shop. He took the bearings apart and machined the inner races after making a holding tool so that everything was done with some precision. So, yes you can take them apart with no problems. We put one in the hub and did have preload so I ended up having him install them in all the hubs. He had one axle and was able to check everything there before I went ahead and had them all done. I gave Casey feedback and so did my mechanic and I think JMC ended up getting the next batch of bearings already machined so that this would not have to be done. Talked with him yesterday about these posts and it sounded like they fixed the problem from the previous bearings they were selling. I asked my guy if the bearing was loose in the hub and he said that it wasn't too loose or tight for that matter. He said he really didn't need a big press to get them in or out but that they just didn't slide in either. I asked him about loctite and he said I didn't need it for my hubs but if there was some looseness it would help that for sure. I also talked with Casey about replacement hubs and he does have front and rear for around $75-$80 dollars it sounds like. I do have a little play when rocking the tire on the top pushing it in toward the vehicle and back out but it is very minimal and I am running 30" tires so I don't know if I can every get that little bit of play out of there. I have the preload and my bearings aren't going to spin in the hub so there should not be a problem. I thought going to tapered bearings was a great idea but it ended up being a little more work than what I had planned as I had to pull the hubs and remove bearings twice. Either way i am OK now and hopefully will never have to replace them again.

[Guest Lenny]

Good report Bruce. Remember that you can press the two inner races together in a vise to tested. After pressing the outter race should turn a little tight but not so tight that you can feel roughness when turning it. If your havng bearings ground to provide preload, this is a good way to check it as you go.

Lenny

[Kinarfi]

It's been awhile since I had the axle and bearing apart, but if I remember correctly, when you tighten up the nut that holds the spindle on, you are squeezing the two inner races together, is that correct? If so,the amount free play as you wobble the tire can be increase by putting a shim between the races and decreased by removing some of the inner part of one or both of the races, right?

EDIT: According to Lenny, the answer to both questions would be yes, He posted while I was typing evidently.

[Guest Lenny]

It's been awhile since I had the axle and bearing apart, but if I remember correctly, when you tighten up the nut that holds the spindle on, you are squeezing the two inner races together, is that correct? If so,the amount free play as you wobble the tire can be increase by putting a shim between the races and decreased by removing some of the inner part of one or both of the races, right?

EDIT: According to Lenny, the answer to both questions would be yes, He posted while I was typing evidently.

Thats correct. Thats providing that the nut or hub doesn't bottom out first.

Lenny