Beware,chinese Bearings=broken Spindle

Have you tried NAPA wheel cylinders? The ones I bought were made in the USA. Cast right into the body of them.

 

Yep, they had them as of the first of the year and only the driver side or passanger side. I call a few suppliers and they told me the same one side USA other side Communist China.

 

Did you try Joblot, in Jamica Queens, NY? The fellas there are also very honest and will tell you where the stuff is coming from.

 

Exactly, I'm not defending China but what responsibility does the US Company have ? They are buying this shit dirt cheap, and making bocu bucks.
All the stuff about leaded paint in toys, why wasn't Mattel checking this shit ? It really is there responsibility isn't it ? Now our wonderful government is going to step up to the plate and take care of it, oh joy, that will costs us .
Why not do like the Chinese do, execute the fuck that let it happen. May sound cruel but it really gets results, you can bet your ass he ain't gonna let it happen again.

 

The point is, check your bearings... Plain and simple...

If you aren't using good quality bearings then think about an upgrade...

If you want to discuss geo-political climates and global economics while you do it, fine... But just check the damn bearings...

Thanks for posting this Steve... It's a good eye-opener and graphic presentation of what can go wrong...

-Phil (The guy that bought the rusty "Wally Parks" rails from you )

 

Cheers , that is the point of this link is education about our own cars , just seems to be worth a couple of minutes check & if need arises then change the offending parts & hopefully we can prevent this happening . At least you can repack the wheel bearings which is a good idea anyway.

 

I tear down my spindle mounts every prespring for a look see and grease job before my vehicle hits the road...I also leave it up in the air and crawl under it w/ some wrenches and go from front to back...checking all nuts and bolts...then move onto other maint. items....such as brakes.....So when your checking your front ends now take it a little further its spring and time to drive for alot of us after a long winter..........I am not going to complain about China..bottom line over the years we made our bed and now we are laying in it.......I hear others complain about their American made parts as well..Truth is its all a gamble anymore sad to say. All we can do is keep trying...Littleman...its that time of year to go over your hotrods and check them out from front to back...Goodluck

 

Limey Steve, Out of curiosity - were those spindles CAST or FORGED???

On a related note - I think it was last year or the one before - anyways were were at the Drag Races when a dragster was just starting to turn right after coming back down the return run after a 200 or so MPH pass when his front wheels falls off. I didn't hear this first hand, but the words was that they forgot to lube the wheel bearing on that wheel - it siezed and snapped the aluminum spindle. To think if this happened just seconds before - it could have REALLY spelled disaster. Be safe - double check all these things.

 

You are a smart man.

 

got a napa/skf wheel bearing today that had "made in korea" on it....

 

Just today I bought two new axle bearings for a '57 wagon 9 inch.



Came from Car Quest, a good couple steps above A-Z/CSK and the like. One was made in the US, the other was made in China. Swell. The bearings themselves are identical, to the point that you can't tell one from the other and now that they are out of the boxes, I don't know which was where. I'll use them both, I think it'll be fine.

It's getting to the point that if you want US made parts, you'll have to look hard and pay big. Or stock up now whenever you find them.

-KK

 

I think they were forged but I'll check on the replacement , shromed too but no chrome on the spindle so no problem. I think given the situation he was doing 70 mph, he said from the first smell of brake dust to fracture was 2 miles ,which is about 2 minutes, not much time to react. The grease caught fire but he managed to blow it out,full fendered deuce too , no damage, The Hot Rod Gods were on his side that day.
Thanks for all the replies I really think we all need to do as littleman does,Very sensible, trouble here is we don't have a down time , too much nice weather. We really do need to make time for the essential check up from the tires up.

 

While it is entirely possible the bearing quality in this case was crap, it could also be a case of too much grease being packed into them too. I have 25 plus years in the factory maintenance feild and have been through a number of courses with SKF bearing experts and a large number of failures stem from poor installation and or overgreasing.

 

I don't think over greasing would overheat a bearing to such a temperature that it would weld the nut , washer & spindle together ! that's some pretty hot heat. A bearing failed at 70 mph on a front wheel doing ????RPM causing a total seizure of said bearing melting the spindle & causing a catastrophic failure.

 

steve, it really sounds like a defective spindle to me that caused the bearing to shift and ultimately fail. not long ago i was reading about some steering arms that had broken (t-bucket?) and they showed a picture of the failed part. bet the supplier is curious if it was or not. best thing was nobody got hurt.

 

Lots of bearings are manufactured on fully automated lines. The first human hands that touch them are yours, when you open the box. In many cases American companies ship the machines and the knowhow to somewhere in the world where labour is cheaper than in North America. They dictate QC regimens and specs for raw materials. Unless it's policed, the third world workers don't necessarily know how to maintain the necessary quality. and sometimes don't care. Place of manufacture is no guarantee, good or bad.

Something else to be aware of regarding wheel bearings: Not all tapered rollers use the same angles, the bearing and outer race have to be a proper match. A couple years back I was installing a Wilwood disc brake kit on a customer's MII front end and there weren't enough threads showing to properly install the nut. Long story short, it turned out the outer races that had been pressed into the hubs by the manufacturer were not a match for the bearings. A mismatch could cause point loading that would smoke a bearing in no time.

I'd suggest finding a bearing supply house with a sympathetic, knowledgeable counter man, if you can.

 

I think the US Companies have as much responsibility as the Chinese if not more. I haven't seen prices go down when the parts have started being made in China. It's greed pure and simple. Profit margins and the bottom line. And lives are at stake. I think companies have an obligation to check quality. If they don't I think they should assume liability.

 

When I was working in manufacturing, bearings were rated in ABEC classes. Different tolerances on the finished bearings was what determined the ABEC rating. Tighter tolerances meant better bearings. Some are rated for different rpm use. The lower ABEC ratings are for slow rpm's, higher rpm's require tighter tolerances. AST bearings (made exclusively in China) sell all of the different ABEC ratings, it is up to the customer to know what the application requires.

 

The Chinese must be capable of building Quality stuff.
They even have their own Space Program.

But if our question to them is " how cheap can you make it?'

I guess he answer is " pretty damn cheap..."


In other words...

We are getting what we asked for


I agree its not Chinese problem its USA and West how want buy Cheap and not think about quality.
After 14 year in China so know I they can do if you say what you want and not think save 10cent here and there.
So we need say to them we buy from they must order qvality!
And all Cheap Store how take skit from China they make a market just for Shit
and make a bad namne for whole china so stp buy from WALLMART and so on!!!<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

I don't mean to hijack, but would subjecting a bearing to a cryo process work? I just don't know enough to tell if it would just F it up? Anyone know?


P.S. To whom it may concern...I am aware that I am a complete moron, thanks.

 

The fault of all of the 3rd world junk is our elected officials. This imported junk is cheap because we do not put stiff enough tarrifs on it. Jack up the import taxes so it is more profitable to make it here or at least competitive for matching quality. Many, many daily use items are easily available are imports. U.S. made items are rare in many areas and in a many cases just not available.

 

This is a double edged sword. We did this to ourselves by demanding "everyday low prices" on everything from wheel bearings to gasoline. Lets suppose we did exactly what you suggest on imported stuff. How much would you be willing to pay for a 100% domestic T-shirt, a USA wheel bearing, or a US-only gallon of gasoline? When we get a choice between a $20 US made part or a $10 Chinese part and what do we do? We pick the cheap stuff.

The fact is, the goods we are importing are simply a response to the demand that we created. You want cheap? Welcome to China.

 

Well put... I like the inclusion of Wal-Mart's slogan for I agree that mentality was poisoned our way of thinking...

 

We need to hang a big sign from the Statue of Liberty that reads
"Closed for Remodeling"

 

Smelt are a species of fish...

 

Was this on the right hand side?

 

Yes it was the passenger side.

BTW Betruger , I'm English we spell differently to you Yanks Smelt , past sense of smell . Oxford English Dictionary

Smelled if you prefer LOL

 

Is it possible the spindle nut wasn't locked properly. On the RH side it would spin the nut tight and seize the bearing. Thats providing they have RH threads. The LH side would have a tendency to loosen if improperly installed. Not saying that is the case, but is a possibility.

It's also possible the locking washer failed causing the nut to spin tight. Have seen this happen.

 

Great; just replaced those bearings last week (haven't even got it out on the road yet!). Dug thru the garbage to discover they are SKF (mexico) bearings. Will be watching closely.

I work for a company that is considered a 'best of category', heritage, American brand (marketing speak) that used to be manufactured in Tennessee. We now manufacture in China, of course, but maintain our quality and performance by having our quality engineers in the factories making our product. It costs us money to have those folks there, but to have our products or brand suffer would be worse. It's not easy or cheap, but quality products can be 'Made in China'. So even though I know it's possible to get quality product from overseas, I still by USA when possible.

 

Gilty, impossible to say now but I'm sure if your scenario was plausible we'd see it happen a lot . This is a rare thing all I know is it was a Chinese bearing & I know that quality control is an issue .I posted to make people aware what can happen & to check the components on our Rods regularly.