Rear bearings, green vs timken

Here is a letter that was written to Bearing-Technologies way back when the green bearing first came out. I believe the RP400 is no longer made and is replaced by the better MO400 or the ST400.

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The question is whether or not the RP400 bearing kit for Mopar 8-3/4" axles is suitable for street car applications. There has been a lot of discussion that since your catalog lists it under "Racing" that racing is the only application. Some have also said that the RP400 doesn't have enough lateral retention for street use. Others have said that they have several thousand miles of street use with the RP400s in their axles and have encountered no problem. Can you clear up the issue for me?

Dear BTL,

I received your question about the RP400. I'll try to answer this to the best of my ability. The original intent of the RP400 designed by the Green Bearing Company was meant as a replacement for the original taper bearings in the rear end of Chrysler / Mopar applications. It was made for street vehicles, as were all of Green's automotive bearings. Over time these products became favorites of custom axle manufacturers such as Moser Engineering, Strange Engineering and Mark Williams Enterprises. Green, being a job shop, manufactured a multitude of bearings for these outfits and started categorizing them as "Racing" bearings due to the fact that the products were becoming popular in that application.

There are a lot of these bearings on the road in both street applications as well as on track applications. As far as performance, all I can say is that these have been a staple in our product line with no revisions / issues for a long time. The experts on the performance of the product in various applications would be Moser or Strange. If you would like to contact them, you have to ask specifically for the RP400 with the fixed flange because there is a modified version (MO400) which was designed by request for Moser and has a slide over flange with a snap ring retainer.

You can visit www.moserengineering.com or call 260-726-6689 for more information.

Thank you for your interest in our products.

Best Regards,
Brian Graziadei

Bearing-Technologies LTD