Bringing an F100 Back from the Dead

Yeah, that's what I'm thinkin' too.

 

What happens if you stick to a known name, like Timken?

 

I found Timken, which is indeed USA made. But, they are tapered roller bearing. I don't have the adjustable side plates to adjust bearing preload. They actually say USA made. I also found SKF. In most cases, they'll have "Made in USA" right on the bearing. These however do not. I've tried without any luck to find the exact Federal Mogul bearings I have using the bearing number. All I can find so far is SKF, National, and no name.
I'll keep digging.

 

I found this on Summit and Jegs both. "Made in USA" is to the left of the price. But going directly to the Strange Engineering site, the country of origin is not listed.
Should I trust it?

 

I've been in your shoes in the last decade a couple of times. I think the cheapest is always the riskiest. I don't trust all of the made in USA stuff either because most is made to a price point. I tend to buy name brand and spin them. If I feel or hear anything, I get different ones. I have suffered around a 20% bearing failure on my projects since 2007. All different brands, different locations on a vehicle. I'm not much help. no definitive answer from me.

 

National is a good brand.
I would also trust Strange Engineering, although I'd assume they are reselling someone else's bearing.

 

It seems that Strange, Moser, Quick Performance, Driveline America....all sell the same bearing. On their own websites, country of origin is not mentioned. The Strange bearing on both Summit and Jegs say "Made in the USA." Virtually the same picture with no visible markings on the bearing. These are all about the same price, right around 50 bucks per. So $100 a pair. What gives me pause is that I had read somewhere that one of those companies got in a bit of hot water for having that USA made label on chinee parts.
Amazon sells the National brand, and those that have commented say the packing stated USA made, and these are around $40/each. Napa sells bearings at two price points. $25/each (Guar-On-Teed to be chinee.) Their "best" is $65/each. 20 years ago, I would have gone down to Napa without giving it a second thought.
If this were front bearings, I wouldn't be so ultra picky. Those can be swapped out in an AutoZone parking lot, as long as you get to it before it buggers up the spindle.
Rear axle bearings are a whole 'nuther ballgame. It would suck to be out in BFE somewhere, miles from anywhere with a wadded up axle bearing. You can always carry a spare, but then what?
Thanks for "listening" to my rantings!

 

Call Strange and ask whose bearing they are selling and where is it made?

tel:800-646-6718

 

This from Strange and Moser...
"We don’t manufacturer the bearings, they are supplied from a vendor and they are not specifically USA made bearings."

 

The quest continues.

 

The best you can do is go with a name brand like Timken, SKF, or National. If there are 2 price ranges, go with the higher priced bearing. If a company watches the product quality they receive from China, or any other country, and insists (and only accepts) higher quality parts, good products do come from those countries. Its the companies that don't care about the quality that receive junk from their suppliers. Production means errors can always occur, high quality means very few of those errors leave the production company.

In all the miles I have logged in vehicles, I have never had a rear axle bearing just up and fail. Of the few actual rear wheel bearing failures I've had, every one of them has given me plenty of noisy warning and have had gear lube running out of the brake drum and down the inside of rear tires. The gear lube leaking out of the brake drums and running down the inside of the tire has always been the first warning sign, and has always come well in advance of a bearing failure. Most of the time, replacing the leaking seal, and repacking the bearing (if that is how its lubed) have prevented nearly all bearing failures. Failed axle seals, low gear lube level, and lack of bearing grease packing (if that was how it was lubed), are what causes 95% of all rear wheel bearing failures (incorrect adjustments, bent, or damaged parts account for the other 5%).

I'm a Mopar guy, the rear wheel bearings on all of the 8 3/4 rear ends have axle seals between the gear lube and the axle bearing, and the axle bearings are packed with grease like the front wheel bearings are, then there is another seal between the bearing and the axle flange to keep dust & dirt out (some of those 8 3/4 replacement wheel bearings are factory sealed these days).
With that said, if the wheel bearings are separated from the axle gear lube with a seal between, be sure the seals are not leaking (causing the gear lube to wash out the grease), and the bearings are properly packed with grease.

If the rear wheel bearings are lubricated by the rear end gear lube, make sure you maintain the correct gear lube level and that the axle seals are good.

Before and during road trips look for rear axle gear lube leaks, and listen for bearing growl. As long as the rear axle gear lube level is properly maintained, your ride will probably get you home. Locked up rear wheel bearings might happen if all the warning signs are ignored for several months, actual lockups pretty rare.

Go drive your rides. The more miles you put on them, the better you will understand they are not fragile, unless you ignore them or beat the crap out of them.

 

On to the next refinement. Strictly aesthetic. But, it's been buggin' me since I got Ol' Furd on the road. If you would kindly refer back to post #168, you would see the section of grill that a previous owner had cut out. Cam swap? I dunno. I kinda scabbed it back together with pieces of aluminum, pop rivets and epoxy, then painted it. For a driver it's fine. But, it's been on my mind ever since. Repop grills are available. 1966 model style. Which is fine, but at well over 800 buck plus oversize shipping...too rich for me. Used ones pop up occasionally. But I haven't seen one local for less that $300, and even those need work.
So, for $50 in materials, and about 15 hours of my own labor, I have something I think is nice. I used a 1963 year as a reference.
I used the existing perimeter, and built an inset from 16ga (.065" wall) steel tubing, then painted it to match.
Behold the result...
Before and the 1963 reference. Note turn signal in the grill. I didn't do that. Nor the black lines breaking up the horizontal bars.


The new grill....as delivered, and before a bit of cuttin' and welding..


No turning back...


Structure roughed out....

First fit up...



And the final product...
What's hard to see is the vertical uprights that attach the center part to the outer perimeter as well as the body/hood latch braces. It's solid!
Even with all the work, most won't be able to distinguish it from a stock grill.

Next up is dealing with the rear wheel bearings. I got myself a Hobo Freight shop press (the big one), so It's down to just gettin' er done.

 

Nice job on the grill.

 

I like it. I use the same press for axle bearings. It gets pretty tight before the bearing gives up and goes in place. I have an old spacer that I use to sit on the plates to put the bearing against when installing.

 

Nice job on grill, Mike. About bearings-Made in China is not absolutely bad.. WAIT! , I mean quality wise. Politics and economy , bla bla is another subject,- But, if the bearings made in China or Vietnam or whatever are made with the high quality steel and machined properly the are OK. We know they can do it, but how do you know which ones to buy? As stated earlier, I think go with the highest priced name brand. I had a 02 Impala that went thru front wheel bearings like crazy- like 30K miles for cheap replacements, I found some bearings for something like 20 bucks a piece shipped on Ebay, so I bought and installed a couple. They looked and turned fine. about 3000 miles later I did a oil change on car and found both ft wheels had tightened up- one was so tight I couldn't turn wheel by hand! I think this is why you see cars burnt up on highway- I bought some AC Delco original replacement bearings on Rockauto and they were from China also, but they went for 80,000 miles and were still OK when I got rid of car.

 

Thanks Greg. I bought the ones from Moser at $100 the pair. No markings as to the country of manufacture.
I've heard some say to pop the seals off and check the grease before installing. I did that.
Sure enough, Kinda sparse on the grease. So I packed 'em good with extreme duty bearing grease, and popped the seal back on.
I'll probably get the bearings swapped out here in a week or two.

 

nice grille