My '72 cannabalized it's 3rd outer wheel bearing yesterday morning on the way to school. This time was the worst. The bearing litterally just fell to pieces when I pulled the hub off the front axel. I originally thought it was the spindle itself causing the problem because someone had taken a grinder to it, but I replaced that with the one off my '74 Grabber. This time the wheel bearing is completely destroyed, and the bearing race has a big crack in it. What the heck would cause the bearing race to crack? I've eliminated the spindle being the problem, so the only thing I can think of now is it possibly being the hub? Is it possible that the hub could be out of round? There is a little bit of a shimmy in the steering at times but I figgured it was just the tires needing to be balanced. This is the same hub/drum/spindle that took a direct impact when I wrecked my '74 Grabber, resulting in the passenger frame rail being rotated and pushed 5 1/2 inches to the drivers side and the drivers side frame rail getting pushed 2 sideways from the front of the shock tower forward. I've got about 2,500 miles on it after the wreck and have gone though 3 wheel bearings, so something isn't right.
Jamie, Probaly a stupid question but have you double checked the numbers on the bearings you are buying to make sure they are the correct ones. Also are you buying the same brand? Maybe bad bearings???? Dean
I would never use a part that was in a direct wreck,you probably have a warped hub. a couple of other things are, bearing being overtightened,not enough grease,wrong size bearing,wrong size race or possibly a bad batch of bearings,not likely but possible. find another hub and see if it helps.
A person wouldn't put a new cam against old cam bearings.....same goes for this bearing. Chech into the root of the vibration.......you'll probaly find your problem.....
Bearings I been buying are what ever Autozone/Advance Auto list for a 1974 Maverick. Says TIMKENO LM12749 on it. On closer inspection I see that the inner race is also cracked. I always replace the race and everything. I really doubt I over tightened it, I've done a bunch of other cars in the past and never had a problem, likewise my drivers side bearing hasn't been touched since early December when I put the front end together. I'm leaving in about 3 hours to go up to NC and pull a hub off one of my other Mavericks. Hopefully it will fix the problem. It's not really a vibration in the steering, more of a slight intermittent shake, comes and goes depending on speed and if I'm going around a corner. I gotta hunch it's either a bent rim or a flat spot on the tire, although it seems like it would do it all the time if it were one of those. The drivers side wheel and tire were on my '74 at the time of the wreck. The car slid sidways almost on 2 wheels about 6 feet and then spun completely around and rolled about 12 feet and ran up on the curb, so it may have flat spotted the tire. I don't remember if I was hitting the brakes or not while the car was spinning. I don't like reuseing parts from a car hit that hard either, but when you don't have much money you don't have much of a choice. I'm planning to change all the wheels, install front disc brakes and get some new tires put on soon as money allows. Thanks guys, this pretty much confirmed what I was already thinking.
Front wheel bearings?? I have never bought a front wheel bearing that didnt. I have never bought a tapered bearing that didnt. Then again, I always buy name brands.
Just for clarity, how tight are you getting these things? The way I was told was get the slack out of it, something like 1/4 turn after that, get the little lock cover to line up with the cotter pin hole. I generally have to tighten mine up around the time for an oil change, but these bearings have at least 50k miles on them.
If you are buying good name brand bearings find out what country they are made in. It should say on the box. I been have big problems loseing bearings to. Couldn't figure out what was going on and they there a good brand. I found out they where made in countries in Europe and Russia. I decided to go to nappa and talked with them. I got a one made in the U.S. and the other one was from Mexico. Thats been almost a year now no more problems. Even if its a brand name they make them in differant countries with inferior metal that fails sooner. So for now on I'll get my bearings that are made in the U.S.
What hubs/drums are you using? 5lug or 4lug? If you can not come up with a good hub/drum I have a pair of 5 lug drums/spindles with new brakes,hoses,wheel cyl,ect. E-mail me if you need them.They are off my 73.
