Was doing the yearly repack of the front wheel bearing on my '57 today when I ran across this. I didn't notice any noise. The hub turned smoothly with no slop before I took it apart. Both races and all the balls are smooth. Bearing is a genuine New Departure made in USA part. What would cause this kind of failure? Is it structurally important? I've already replaced the complete bearing assembly. Just wondering.
You did good!!! My opinion is you had a disaster waiting to happen. Very good that you do maintenance and found it. Probably not long before it all fell apart! It looks to me to be a casting failure. Probably a bad part from the factory. (even on American parts, most casting comes from either China or Rumania these days) You just made me a believer in yearly maintenance!
Not To Worry This happens occasionally ~ the cage failed and you caught it before anythng bad occurred .
That part isn't cast. It is fairly thin stamped metal (probably stainless) that is just formed around the balls to keep them in place. Current BCA B-52 bearing that is a placement for the New Departure 909052 use a plastic piece to do the same job.
Interesting That would lead me to believe that it was a fatigue failure which probably means something was out of round (either a ball or the race) and causing it to work some. In any case if it had alowed a ball to drop then things could have turned ugly!
Bearing Cage Failure Usually happens when the bearing is too loose so the balls (or rollers) push sideways against the cage , cracking it . if you'd have grabbed the top of the tire and pushed & pulled it , I bet you'd have felt the excess play , indicating need of adjustment . FWIW ; it is very important to properly adjust ball bearings , slightly different than you do roller bearings ~ ball bearings you assemble the hub to the spindle and run the adjusting nut up , spin the hub (I leave the wheel on it) with one hand whilst you snug up the adjuting nut to a slight pre-load to seat the bearing , then back it off whilst the wheel is still spinning , untill you feel the adjustment go slack , now tighten it back to _barely_ zero clearance ~ there must be NO pre-load on ball bearings ! . Roller bearings , some folks like to leave them with 3 # or so of pre-load , I don't , I set them to zero play , maybe .0005" and yes , you can feel this tiny amount after you've done a few . BTW : the cage is ferrous mild steel and will rust long before the balls will . For those amongst us who are Po' Boys or farmers etc. , it is indeed permissable to use used wheel bearings from junker trucks , you MUST use the races from the donor hub and also clean them hospital clean and inspect before re-packing and re-installing . I don't _ever_ use long fiber grease (brown or beige) as it doesn't stick to the bearings well and tends to have a low heat melting point . For wheel bearings , no matter old or new , ball or roller typ , I use _only_ Molybiumdisulfide (black) short fiber grease , it's good stuff and won't let you down . I am told that the blue or green synthetic bearing greases are even better but I have not yet experimented with them . YMMV , IFAIK , BMFIC , Who Goosed The Moose etc........
Curious? Just wondering if you were running radial tires and/or 6 lug disc brake conversion on your truck? I know a lot of folks swear by the stock ball bearings. However, I've noted that the failure rate on modified trucks (radials/discs) that were driven at today's normal highway speeds is higher. Seems that there are some additional torsional forces/heat generated by these modifications that effect the ball bearing life. Most vendors offer a very pricey set of roller bearings as replacements and I've experienced no similar failures from them. The problem is that local parts houses can't seem to come up with an over-the-counter replacement. Dave
Yes, I have both radial tires and disk brakes. I ran through one set of tapered roller bearings in about two years, repacking them twice. Bearings were no-name. Came with the brake kit. Used to be able to find 909052R and 909067R roller bearings, but I haven't seen a set in years. Have tried big bearing supply places with no luck. They found references in books, but couldn't find the actual parts. MBS, a Japanese bearing manufacturer lists them outer inner set MBS # bore OD ---- w i d t h ------- 909052R 32.550 75.260 19.000 27.100 29.083 909067R 19.057 52.832 13.000 15.440 17.983 where sizes are in millimeters Here is the URL to the MBS parts. http://www.mbs-m.co.jp/page039.html
I Run 16" radial LT tires and cruise @ 65 MPH , original Huck Brakes (crappy) and so far , NO bearing failures .
Wheel Bearing suggestion Hi there, Glad you caught your situation before it caught you... I suggest doing the roller bearing upgrade like I've done. It is really worth the price! My '49 is essentially stock with a few exceptions; electric wipers, signals, seatbelts, and the roller bearings. The difference is very noticeable and much safer too. I just took the drums to my local tire shop and had them remove the old races and press in the new ones. Simple!!! Larry
wheel bearings Hey Nate, I've used the green synthetic wheel bearing grease many times. I'm still not sure I am a big fan. I am using it currently in my disc brake upgraded tapered wheel bearings. It seems after some time, when you pull the bearings for a repack, there just isn't much grease actually on the bearings. That being said, I've never actually seen a failed bearing using it. I do however like the moly grease. Just my 2 cents worth.....Mike
Wheel Bearing Grease O.K. , thanx for the info ~ I don't use synthetic grease , I use the good dead black high Moly content stuff , it's it's good enough for NASCAR , Big Rigs , disc brakes and on and on , it's good enough for me I do know some guys who simply swear by the blue stuff tho' . BTW : the original ball bearings will carry much more load that roller bearing will , they just need to be properly adjusted and inspected regularly or they'll fail wheras a roller bearing can be installed and forgotten about in most cases . If all is properly set up , you'll never notice any differance , the only differance being the sigificantly higher rolling resistance of roller bearings uses more power and fuel .
