NOS transmission bearings

[400A]

I'm preparing to rebuild my Model "A" transmission and am gathering up needed items. I've read with concern some of the older posts stating how some of the newer 7118 and 7121 bearings from suppliers are prone to early failure due in part to a change in design. As I understand it, the old bearings had rollers with small axles on each end that fit into a corresponding hole on the end cage of the bearing. The newer, reproduction bearings have a stamped depression in the end cage causing a dimple to be raised on the inside of the end cage. The rollers no longer have the small axle on each end, but have recessed ends that fit over the depressions on the end cage. It seems as though these bearings are prone to early failure.
While searching thru my transmission stuff, I came upon the bearings pictured below. Not sure where they came from but I've had them a number of years. When I unwrapped them for inspection, I noticed that they have the end cage dimples and no axles on the rollers. They are NOS and have the look and feel of nice, quality bearings but now I'm hesitant to use them.
Has anyone ever seem this dimple design in an old Ford bearing? Do you see any issues using these in my transmission build? Looking for advice from the experts here. Many thanks in advance.

 

[J Franklin]

If you don't want to use them send them to me!

 

[1crosscut]

I'm not and expert but I think that that is the style you would want to avoid using.

 

[mcgarrett]

If you believe they are genuine NOS Ford bearings and haven't been switched out with inferior import parts and put in Ford boxes, I wouldn't hesitate to use them. If they are the real deal, Ford designed them that way for a reason. Check to be sure the cages themselves are tight and don't have any wiggle to them and you should be good to to. I have used the dimple type bearings before without problems. The Ford dimple design is adequate to center each roller in the proper relationship to each other after they are assembled into the ******.

 

[Oldcarbearings]

As far as i'm aware the ORIGINAL&O.E.M. wound journal roller cages had spiral grooves cut into the rollers made by HYATT NONE of the other USA wound journal roller brands : BOWER/BALTZER/BERLIS/RBC made that style IF your NOS have both the FORD logo brand &part number etched in between a roller then i'd use them otherwise try to find/locate&source HYATT brand ones i can give/provide the part numbers.IMHO&HO (honest&humble) opinions i'd use NOS over ALL/ANY of the ones provided by&sold by the FORD spare parts vendors as they're made in CHINA by KOBE steel is far&way too soft!!!!! &cages fail (fall apart).

 

[nkaminar]

Consider a new Mitchell synchromesh transmission.

 

[Rob Doe]

Tom Endy has a post on this forum that shows photos of the 'quick fail' crummy bearings. You can find it on the www.Santaanitaas.org website, tech articles, as well. As I recall some of the bad bearings were failing within one thousand miles.



Talk to Snyders. They have supposedly sourced better bearings a couple years or more ago. I rebuilt our transmission with all Snyder's bearings last fall and it now has 5000 miles on it with no problems. If I have a bearing failure, I'll be back to tell about it. At this point, I'm beginning to believe they have resolved the issues with the 3 caged bearings in the transmission.

 

[rotorwrench]

The original Hyatt roller bearing design had spiral wound bearing surfaces, The had no axle inside the bearing rollers. The end cages were thick and had deep dimple pressings that formed spindles to capture the rollers and act to allow fluid movement of the rollers. Some of the smaller ones may not be spiral wound depending on the era of manufacture but they still used the same cage design.

This link has old illustrations: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=41386