Front wheel bearings, any favorites?

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Baxter61

Baxter61

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The car needs new fronts, and bad. Gonne get it done in the next couple of weekends, do you have a favorite brand or a ll they all the same? Streep/strip car, only sees upwards of 115 mph or so, mostly street driving. Thanks as always!
 
I just purchased a set of Timkens and seals from one of the local parts stores. These bearings are still made in the USA, and are much stronger than the Chinese bearings. Been using them for years.
 
Just out of curiosity and Im really not trying to start another "hate China" thread but what are the imported brands?
 
National...Its a Federal Mogul company. Seems my parts house always stocks these and they are about 1/2-1/3 $$ of a Timken...Dont know country of origin though. If a front wheel bearing fails at 115, what happens, seizure of race to bearing, then what? Never had a wheel bearing fail, but I have had one make some loud noises and clunk around.
 
I use Timken and Bower/BCA bearings that I bought years ago. Only USA made stuff for me if possible!
 
cudamark said:
I use Timken and Bower/BCA bearings that I bought years ago. Only USA made stuff for me if possible!
Click to expand...

Check your next Timken bearing...could be made in China, India, or USA. How 'bout this: Timken bearing..race made in Brazil, Cone made in Canada!
Most Chinese bearings (if they fit) will fare much better if you do your duty and properly pack the bearing with grease, especially the "sealed" ones. Good luck.
 
For years timken has also made bearings outside the us and you will get them from time to time from the parts store. I think they also make them in poland, but I could be wrong on which country it is. They are just as good regardless of whether they are us or polish. Timken is the best

Haven't seen brazil, china etc... I don't know about their quality.
 
As long as they are made to Timken's specifications, foreign-made bearings should be fine. I can't imagine a company with that history and quality products offering poor substitutes. They are like the last resort for quality.
 
Yup and moog used to have a reputation for quality. How about electrical replacement parts like electronic ignition control units and even something simple like a cap or rotor for a slant six. You can't even trust formally good name brand companies for tune-up parts anymore. Any company's quality can go down hill when accountants are in charge.
 
I have some new "Made In USA" ignition parts for a slant 6 if you're interested. I have 7 electronic caps (tan) and 7 points caps (black) and a few points type rotors too. I also have a couple of new reluctors for an electronic distributor. There are several different brands so if you have a preference, just ask. Some even have copper terminals!
 
Auto Zone has Timken made in USA. I tried to find them.
They told me they sell more of them than anything else in the store.
So I wanted to post that.
I did a search before posting and found this tread.
I’m resurrecting and updating it.

The driver was talking to me.
It was a whisper only I could hear. No real noise or sound. Something just didn’t feel right.
After you spend so much time with someone you develop a relationship that can’t be explained to the skeptic.
It’s like one of those stories in which someone just knows something bad has happened to another person even though they are miles apart.
Like that.
I suspected that the wheel bearings might be going. They have 100K on them. Not sure where the left was made.
But the right one was Mexican.
So after I got some Timken today, I pulled the wheels and found the brake pad rivets where right there.

That was close.
 

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mcnoople said:
Yup and moog used to have a reputation for quality. How about electrical replacement parts like electronic ignition control units and even something simple like a cap or rotor for a slant six. You can't even trust formally good name brand companies for tune-up parts anymore. Any company's quality can go down hill when accountants are in charge.
Click to expand...

this is true, but currently MOOG is owned by federal mogul, the same federal mogul who makes ALL of napas chassis parts, SKF is a division of federal mogul as well, and if SKF cant make the bearings, they go straight to the original manufacturer to get it. the front end bearings for my powerwagon were timkens in an SKF box, made in GERMANY. and the ones for my dart were made by koyo, straight from japan. (japanese bearings are kick *** by the way) Also, when i tore down the 87 gran fury that my engine and trans came out of, the entire front end was koyo bearings. apparently the police shop felt they were good enough for highway patrol service, and there wasnt a damn thing wrong with them. SKF's bearings are made in mexico (mostly) but to the same tolerances as the originals, and ive never had one come back from a manufacturers failure, in 6 years. So really, im sure most of the horror stories out there are either from installation errors, or horrible luck. for myself, if its timken, skf, or koyo ill run it. ive never had a problem with either one.
 
I just put precision bearings in mine the two boxes with the inner bearings say made in China the two outer and the seals say made in USA wierd lol didn't check until i read this post
 
Managed a Napa,sure wasn't moot in 05.As for Federal Mogul:Early 90's,F-M bought out TRW's automotive section.The TRW forged pistons I could get over night,disappeared within 6 months.Prices went up,supply went down.Fed-Mog not bad,not even close to old TRW......
 
It’s a pet of mine.
I’m going to contact Advance (where I usually shop) and tell them that I didn’t buy National from them because of their origin.

I just wanted to alert people that at least some USA Timken ar readily available.
I had a conversation with Glink on the radio during the GM bailout. She is a real estate investor and thinks real estate should always go up.
That’s her prime goal.
http://www.thinkglink.com/
She was asking for opinions on the GM bailout.
I told her that I did not know enough about that to say whether it was a good idea or not.
But I do know that we won’t make it selling each other real estate for a living.
Ouch.
And if she went to the parts store she would be lucky if she got Mexican bearings.
Probably would be Chinese.
Last I checked Fafnir was still making aircraft bearings in Connecticut. But it’s been a while on that.
And I told her that during the war one of the first places we took out was the bearing factory.
Those boys got cut to hell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweinfurt–Regensburg_mission
You ever heard the story of the B17 that limped back and belly landed in England.
The belly gunner was trapped in his torrent.
True.
How would you have liked to been the pilot of that plane?

We aren’t here at forabodies, but most people on the street are clueless. Bearings are in everything.

66, I’m having trouble concentrating when you post.
 

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Hi All
See here - http://www.ssgm.com/news/counterfeit-bearings-seized-at-toronto-airport/1001922336/

Canada Customs had a whole pallet of fake timken bearings in fake packages from CHINA. I work for Volkswagen and we have a serious problem with counterfeit parts in fake packaging. We see lots of it. Recently we were asked to examine a door hinge that was about to be installed by a body shop. They had purchased it from a company who specializes in "OEM"(Original Equipment Manufacturer) and "OES" (Original Equipment Supplier) parts. They hinge was supposed to be from the same vendor that builds ours (OES). On closer inspection and comparison with our hinge from inventory we could see that it had similiar stampings indicating the vendor but the design was different. After sending it to Germany for metallurgical testing it was reported to be of inferior metal and could have failed if stressed in a collision. Nice eh!
Pisses me off when we get blamed for charging too much and we have to spend profit dollars on this type of crooked crap. CHINA = Thieves!

Rant Over!

Pete
 
Gotta love those Mounties.

"All Timken products are packaged in a black and orange packaging manufactured to a specific corporate standard that has a hologram for counterfeit protection. Boere notes this packaging was lacking a hologram and the barcoding was wrong."


Ahhh.Ha.
That explains the classy hologram on the package. For a moment there, I thought Microsoft had gotten involved.
Good tip about buying online too.
Beware of doing that because you may not get a good picture of what your getting.

And now for the obligatory theme music.
I'm On the Lamb, But I Ain't No Sheep

Canadian Mounted, baby,
A police force that works.
Red and black- that's their color scheme.
They get their man, in the end.
It's all right.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vdsUDNpM54"]Blue Oyster Cult: I'm on the Lamb, But I Ain't No Sheep - YouTube[/ame]
 
Don't laugh (or hate) but FAG bearing are made in good ol' Joplin, Missouri (among other places, I'm sure).

The problem with outsourcing is that it seems to follow a similar trend:

Company decides to investigate outsourcing (to China, for example)
Company makes friends
Friends make prototype parts and works really hard at it.
Prototype parts look good.
Company goes for it.
Company sends QC guys over to "keep an eye on things". This is cubic dollars.
QC is great, the new guys have this down pat.
Company decides everything is under control, QC guys leave.
Company spends the money saved elsewhere.
New guy falls into old, substandard habits.
QC falls into new, unacceptable levels.
Company no longer has money for QC repair.
Company realizes every competitor is in same boat, so says "**** it."
Consumer gets angry.
Company realizes every competitor is in same boat, still says "**** it."
Consumer runs out of options.
Consumer gets used to it.
Company gets used to it.

And that, ladies and gents, is how the quality of living drops.

As the Chinese get used to making money, they're going to stop working for peanuts and the cost of their goods must rise. Right now, they're capitalizing on a workforce flush with a constant supply of peasants, much like the industrial revolutions in the US and Britain were.
When that supply of hungry, cheap labor runs out, and they have to start meeting safety, health, and cost standards like the rest of the world, their edge will be gone and many jobs will come back to the US, much like the safety and health and wage standards slowed the Industrial Revolution. (It does not help that the Chinese artificially manipulate their money).

The question is: Will the Chinese run out of labor before the US debt comes due and we can maintain our position. This is a close call.

The Hope: They (The Chinese) are in a manufacturing boom (bubble) built on false pretense (manipulated finances). Think: the last time this happened in the US? Housing bust of '08/'09....The upshot: All bubbles burst. We can hope that's true, because that's all I see saving us from this situation.
 
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