Beware,chinese Bearings=broken Spindle

amen Limey Steve. That's why I dug through the garbage to find the box my bearings came in. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Excellent advice from Littleman. A lot of us have cars that take a long winter hiatus, drag cars, open cars or just down for work. It's important to know that grease in packed wheel bearings will settle over time, to the point that the top of the bearing will be bone dry and can lead to failure. I saw this not long ago on a car that my Dad let sit for about 8 months. I started to roll it and heard a grumble from the wheel bearings. Popped them off and half the bearing was dry. So, listen to Littleman and go in there and check 'em out.

 

<P><A href="http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=35389&amp;pictureid=406328" vglnk_1344818021467="1"><IMG style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #e5e5e5 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #e5e5e5 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 6px; PADDING-LEFT: 6px; PADDING-RIGHT: 6px; BORDER-TOP: #e5e5e5 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #e5e5e5 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 6px" class=alt2 title=spindle border=0 alt=spindle src="http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?pictureid=406328&amp;albumid=35389&amp;dl=1344817596&amp;thumb=1" width=90 height=150></A>another one to add to the list...these are not isolated incidents.</P>

 

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Dodged a bullet on this one</P>ended my trip to bonneville 2012. Just like the limey steves post...there was no warning. I had checked and lubed these approximatly 1 week prior to this and all checked out. I had stopped at the delle rest area just outside salt lake city utah on my way to bonneville speedweek 2012 and had walked around vehicle checking temps on tires brake drums etc. to check for problems and none were detected. left rest area and approximatly 2 miles down the road I felt a slight pull to one side a slight shimmy and then heard that noise a bearing makes as it fails. I pulled over and as I came to stop the driver side front wheel fell over as shown in the pics. After getting home and putting truck on stands the tire just fell off. man did I dodge a bullet on this one.

 

<P><IMG title="japanese bearing" alt="japanese bearing" src="http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=35389&amp;pictureid=406329">

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Timkins or not....look for Made in U.S.A. on the bearing not just the box.

 

i had one on my roadster do the same thing about 6 years ago.i used the bearings in the speedway motors disc kit, i should have known better to use them.

 

you know what is crazy is that I had replaced the old bearings, which were timkens with a new set when I had built this front end. honestly I didn't even check the bearings prior to install because I took the old ones with me to the parts store and just assumed I would get like parts when I bought the new ones. Won't do that again.

 

I have seen bearing failures from bad bearings but it usually shows up almost immediately. 3,000 miles is a lot of turns.

 

Im not defending the metal quality in the bearings in question but the original stuff Henry Ford used when these were new were about dead soft.

 

This may be an interesting conversasion.

 

last week I watched a documentary on 60 minutes in NZ re Chinese counterfeit goods and bearings were mentioned. The majority of major manufacturers get their products made in China but under strict QA procedures. The problem is, there are many small companies manufacturing "fakes". These are bought by small distributors in your country and sold as genuine parts. In the documentary they showed the presenter walking down the street and every shop he passed was selling fake bearings.
Dont believe if you buy Timkens you will be buying quality
Have a look on www.alibaba.com and type in Timkens, there are many manufacturers selling them out of China.

 

So,reading this old thread, can anyone say today where we can go to get quality bearings or is it still just a pig in a poke? Seems like the auto parts stores are the last place to go for the good stuff.

 

beware Chinese made anything

 

Some of the noodles are good. But when you make noodles and bearings out of the same material, you're going to have issues.

 

You made me spit a little bit...

 

.... No comment!

 

I tried to avoid the Chinese made , went to a Ford dealer and told them no Chinese and they sold me bearings Ford boxed stamped in (CANADA )with no name stamped on bearings.Funny shit man, they were probably Ford re boxed from China. Haven't burned up yet 4,000 miles,LOL.

 

WTF? If you are saying the originals were "dead soft" as in no good...nearly every early ford front end I have pulled apart (Quite a few!) that have had original ford branded wheel bearings still in place, have been serviceable, and I have no qualms cleaning and repacking them and putting them back in service.
They are better made than nearly all bearings on the market today (save aerospace stuff)..
Another thing.. every single ford manufactured front spindle was hardness tested before installation (look on the stub, it will have a hardness 'dint' )..show me a forged aftermarket spindle that has that sort of quality control, and if it isn't incredibly ugly..I might buy it. chances are i won't be though ..

Thankyou for the post and heads up Steve, its good to see someone spreading knowledge of a potential problem freely!

 

I'm doing bearing replacements now. Anyone know where to get good ones? Is any brand quality or is it just luck of the draw what comes in the box. Seems every brand I see including Timken and SKF is either made in Mexico, China, Japan or India

 

I wouldn't be concerned with bearings that are made in Japan. Most of the motorcycles, autos and other machinery made there is pretty darned decent stuff. Used to be a different story in the 1950's and 60's

 

This came from a Ford Motor Company Exec. He was in the big truck warranty arena. I have known him for 20+ years. He has also owned and restored several stock A's over the years. He said that with the old "Soft" bearing that early Fords had off of the assembly line you couldn't lash them snug like the ones we have today. Also said they would hammer out on rough roads because of the relatively low Rockwell bearing materials. Thats all I have. Doubt anything has the originals today. Like IH still marked there own tapered roller bearings well into the 70's so did Ford. Doesn't mean they were the originals. Also "dead soft" in bearing terms is high 40's RCS. Today high 60's is the norm.

 

Funny this comes up. Took my fnt end apart last week and because i had a bearing faliure last year on a 6 months old bearing i chekt the other side and it sounds like its spinning on sand rather than grease.
I thought it was my lousy ass that didnt thight the nut enuff on the other side but i start questioning the bearings at this point.
Funny thing is that the old ones were still good, simply 40 years old. Infact i replaced the failed one with an original and after almost a year is still perfect....
Neither to say, the original is gettin back already. Unfortunatley is goin to be hard to find a proper replacement when they will fail.

 

http://tvnz.co.nz/sunday-news/poorly-made-in-china-video-5009358

 

and they get all our scrap metal and all we get from is junk

 

Steve thanks for the heads up.

 

I've got to agree with Metalshapes. It's not "all their fault". They're just selling what their buyers will accept. Vendors are shopping price, not quality. If we didn't buy the crap stuff, they wouldn't make it.

I don't hear many complaints about Eagle and Scat products and they are cast/forged in China (machined in USA).

 

It's all about price, where ever it's made. The Chinese build to the specs asked for. Having said that buy USA made, if ya can!

 

That is exactly it............ They could make, (and have), quality parts. But our companies, and others around the world, go there because it's cheap, and greed takes over, make it even cheaper so profit margine is higher. They could mfg quality parts there, and make a good profit, but they have to have more. Good it not acceptable anymore. And US made parts are getting as bad or worse in some cases. With fixed costs, such as EPA, OSHA, and other reg, higher wages, etc, the only place to cut is on the product itself. But most of us would have a heart attack if an outer wheel bearing cost 37.95 instead of 12.95. So we got exactly what we asked for. I hate it, but honestly I was as much of the problem as the rest of us. I didn't have the money, so if I found it cheaper I'd buy it. I had no idea what I was doing or how 10 - 20 years later is was going to affect everything I buy.