rusnak

On Sunday I re-packed my front bearings, but noticed that there was more slop than I'd like to see. The bearings are SKF, but I remember bearings used to be a lot tighter.

I think I might have bad or low quality bearings, and probably need to replace them.

Has anyone else noticed a drop off in quality? Where do you guys get yours, and which brand do you buy?

ivangene

Pulled my drivers fronts out tonight - Timken - I am replacing them, my indy is supplying the bearings, I will know brand and price tomorrow night.

I hate the smell of grease!

So what grease are you using?

Tango635

Some of the more well known names are Timken, SKF and ***. These three companies now have production lines in india and or china, but they probably all do. I would still go with any of these.

User 4221

Excellent and relevant question! I'd like to know what is being used.

psychoideas

The fronts on my 76 are the same size as fronts on our Ford Falcons down here. Even good quality brands are pretty cheap.

wildcat077

I received some KOYO wheel bearings with my new hubs that came with the 996TT brake conversion kit i recently installed.They are OEM bearings for Suzuki,Kawasaki and most Japanese motorcycle and ATV manufacturers,i would imagine they are high quality as well !
I`ve oredered replacement KOYO`s for my snowmobiles and ATV`s for years as well as used Timkens when the KOYO`s were'nt available,they are all high quality parts.

As far as grease goes,MOBIL 28 synthetic grease... in everything because i get
it in 5 gallon containers ... lol

Cheers !
Phil

wpriller

I find Timkin to be good, I installed Timkin wheel bearings with the life time warranty on my S2000, with no complaints.

ivangene

wpriller - your avatar is wicked SICK!!!

ron mcatee

I;m trying to understand your statement, bearings have more slop than your used to seeing. In what way? Do they slide over the spindle properly? Or is there slop when you tighten the nut on the spindle? The proper adjustment is to tighten the bearings with the outer nut until the outer washer can barely be moved by the blade of a screw driver. It should have good resistence against the bearing, but still be movable. Then when you drop the car on its wheel, the slop should be within tolerance. If not, jack up and readjust. I did have a problem once with a set of bearings (can't remember from where) that were sized wrong in the box. Finally found the problem when I checked the diameters withe a micrometer. Were your bearings galled or damaged in any way? Were they noisy? If not, repack them and put them back in.

wpriller

Thanks

rusnak

I've tried Mobil 1 synthetic grease, but I found a bunch of it separated and became liquid in my grease gun. I don't think this is what you want your wheel bearing grease to do. So I switched to Valvoline Super Syn grease. It's been good, but I think I'll switch back to Liqui Moly LM 47 CV Joint Grease. You have to pack it by hand, but it's good grease.

Ron, my SKF bearings just seem loose when you clean out the grease. The rollers rattle around in the cage in other wordsl. Ok, "rattle" might be too much, but they seem loose in the cage. More so than I remember *** bearings doing in the old days. It just seems that bearings used to be much tighter.

whalebird

I understand Timkin to be very good quality. They have a huge plant right down the road from me here in NC. I am not sure what they produce there; they probably outsource like everybody else. IIRC, 911 front wheel bearings are the same as a 356, and a VW beetle.

ivangene

OH - bearing in the cage... that "play" doesnt matter at all.. the cage actually does nothing except keep the thing together while they are out of the car... once installed you run on the inner and outter race cups with the rollers and the cage just "floats" - maybe they opened up the play in there to ease assembly or something but it does not change the bearing performance at all (IMO)

wildcat077

So far i've been using the Mobil 28 grease in my boat trailer,snowmobile/ATV trailer and all our three cars and haven't noticed any signs of degradation,especially in the trailers which are subject to more abuse than the cars.
I also crew for my friend's Mustang, ex "Trans Am" race car and we use Mobil 28 as well on the race car without any issues !
I would imagine there are all kinds of good bearing greases out there,although this one works for me !

Cheers!
Phil

Ed Hughes

I've been using the Valvoline Syn grease for years now, in the tub. I've noticed no breakdown and no issues with my bearings.