Anyone use them? Awfully good price if they're good quality. I plan to pay more for Timkens, unless Speedway bearings are as good. Putting F100 hubs on early Ford spindles. Thanks!
I've used them on two cars and although they're not 'daily drivers' they have a few miles on them with no issues.
I've used them and I would say use brand name bearings. Speedway bearings are Chinese made...even has "made in China" on them if I remember correctly. Not the best quality.
***, that's so rad, that is the name of a bearing company. Who would've thunk it? Everything I have got from Speedway thus far, has been pretty much junk. FWIW. Speedway should be called ***.
Great question 1950CS. My guess would be, to pay for quality, as once they are installed, you can depend upon their lifetime of service. In bearing design, there was a factor known as L10 life, which 90% of the bearings would attain. I seem to recall this as a measure of quality, so about those other 10 brns out of every 100?
I'd go for the name bearings if your worried. I've used Speedway bearings in the past, mostly banjo wheel and front wheel, and have had no returns on them but they were, at least the ones I've gotten, mostly Chinese. However, I have used the Speedway 12" Bendix style brake setup, which was actually MT brakes stuff. Top quality US made! They sell this setup for about 100 bucks less than you can get it from MT. The power of volume sales, Amazing. I would call Speedway and ask a tech about the source of the parts. You may be surprised. Also remember that a lot of Taiwan and Japanese bearings are of excellent quality. The Chinese stuff I have seen is pretty much ****, and we shouldn't be buying from them anyway. Also, if your sourcing from Mac's or some of the other houses, inquire about the maker because the same stuff is showing up pretty much across the board. No reflection on Mac's or Speedway, I like both. In defense of Speedway, their customer service is second to none. A real breath of fresh air these days. My two cents.....
Bought a Speedway bearing kit. Unwrapped bearings in a plastic bag. Did not expect that, should have for the price. I will be replacing them with Timken bearings for the peace of mind. Past experience dealing with the results of an OEM's change from Timken and Sealmaster bearings to "bulk" Chinese bearings dictate so.
If you can ID the bearing, this site has both some interesting notes on Mfg's and a search feature. I've not used it yet. www.locateballbearings.com/
Recently purchased Timken bearings are not made in the USA either but in South America - Brazil if memory serves correctly.
Based on past experience, it is hard to get a good feeling about the bearings when the manufacturer is not proud enough to put their name on their bearings. They may be perfectly fine bearings but; you know. The picture of one of Speedway's bearing was stolen from another HAMBer's post. Number but; no name.
A few of years ago, I went to a local bearing wholesaler, here in the Detroit area looking for proper Pilot Bearings for my flatties. When I was there he gave me a quick lesson in bearings, here's what he said: *ALL the big name manufacturers now focus most of their US Mfg capacity on the high $$$, specialty bearings for Military, aerospace & industrial applications. *They all import low cost bearings for the applications we would typically use. *Chinese bearings **** due to the low quality steel they use. *The best import bearings come from Turkey! This is an offshoot of their gunsmithing history, which helped them produce high quality steel. (I didn't expect that one) *The 2nd best stuff comes from South America. The guy had been selling bearings for 50 years, so I'll take his word on it.
I did the same thing using the Speedway bearing kit last fall. Got the latest coupe on the road this spring. No problems (so far). Install them correctly and grease them up properly.
I used the Speedway bearings on my F100 setup on the coupe and put a whole lot of miles on them with no problems.
I used Chinese front wheel bearing kits on our family minivan a few years ago. The bearings were decent but the seals were junk and I lost one set of bearings from grit that made it into the hub. I replaced the bearings with Timken and the seals with CR and no more problems. The CR seals had a much larger sealing surface and were much higher quality. Lesson learned - it doesn't make sense to use good bearings with lousy seals, never mind how much money is saved.
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