I've searched the archives and seen some discussion on changing the ball bearing front wheel bearings on 1950 or '51 Chevys and Pontiacs like mine to tapered roller wheel bearings. Since they have better load bearing characteristic particularly with radial tires I'm interested in doing this. Being a self employed mechanic and cheap by nature I would rather not buy an online kit. Does anyone know the bearing and race part numbers needed to do this?
measure the i.d. of the race seat, and o.d. of the spindle and go down to your local napa or any good parts store,or bearing supply joint and they will be able to find a bearing (and seal) to fit, and almost all aftermarket stuff is usually made to fit bearings that are avalable as it is to expensive to have bearings special made for a new part
Well I checked the forum and talked to someone on ChevyTalk but they didn't know the numbers on the bearings I need. I could make the measurements on the spindle and race but the closest store with a competent parts person who could make this conversion is nearly two hours away. I'm still hoping that there is someone on this forum who has converted ball bearing wheel bearings to roller bearings (and not just talked about it).
I'm a daily driver year 'round of a '49 Chevy 1/2 ton, ball bearings for over 41k miles. I do tight on/off ramps, highway speeds. IMHO, you don't need rollers, you ain't gonna put yer ride through the Watkins Glen road race. Peace.
Hey Cosmo! I've put on a lot of hiway miles with radials on ball bearing old Chevy trucks,no problems. If the bearings are beat,then change them to rollers if you want.
I've had these bearings out, packed them and adjusted them and they work fine. And being a big believer in "If it works don't fix it" I'm happy to leave 'em. But somewhere down the road I just may need those roller bearing numbers and figured someone on this site may have them.
I don't know if the spindle diameter is the same on '51s to '57s, but, when my ball bearing failed, I took some measurements and went to the junk yard and pulled a pair of hubs from a '66 Bel Air and they work great. The stock drums run in the same location.I believe the outter bearing number was "A 2" and the inner was "A 6". I didn't really want to do it, but the cost of ball bearings was a lot more than the tapered rollers. Plus if anything bad happens on the road a parts store is more apt to have the tapered rollers than ball bearings.
Hers a link to the swap at 47_59 Truck. car is same tecnich, but perhaps not same size? http://www.classicperform.com/tech_articles/Tapered-Wheel-Bearings/Tapered-Wheel-Bearings.htm I changed on my -50 when mounted discs, but dont remember bearing numbers now. I used the inner bearing from a Cutlass -81 who needed some sanding on the spindle to not get stuck fit! But, they are close.. Outer i used the - Cutlass with some special "spacer" between bearing/spindle,made by Thorrington U.K. ( big bearing producer for industry ) This, for the possibillity to get bearings easy when needed. Used it for 3 y. now, no problem
A-2 and A-6 is correct for 1961-68 cars,64-70 trucks. But you need to run the hubs. we used to sell all the hubs of the 60's Impala's for 55-57 guys. Timken made a retrofit roller bearing but it was discontinued decades ago.
If you take the measurements, I will look through my bearing catalogs to see if something's available.
Hi, the retro bearings are no longer available from timken unless you can find a nos set somewhere. , I changed mine to tapered with the new retro kit available from one of the chevy truck shops, dont do it, there chinese and are junk, the seals dont fit, and it is impossible to get correct preload on the bearing, it never seems tight, I cant believe they can sell junk like this, and we buy it. the only way is to use later chevy hubs and bearings from the 60's or leave them as is, i think im going back to ball bearings
IIRC the truck bearing kit from classic performance also works for 41-54 Pontiacs. They even use the same seal I believe.
I double checked my info and the actual years were Chevy/Gmc truck 38-59 1/2 ton were the same as 40-54 Pontiac . Napa list both had B52 inner and B67 outer and the same seal 18772. The spindles look identical, except that Pontiac put them on uprights and the trucks were on a straight axle. I don't have a hollander to double check that they are indeed the same. I'm thinking the Pontiac hubs would work to convert over to a 5 lug set up as well on the truck, has anyone done this? 41-54 full size Chevy car used the same seal and inner bearing but used a B01 outer.
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