Rear Wheel Bearings

[Joe AZ]

With all of the talk recently regarding the quality of the rear wheel bearings being reproduced, I have a question. I recently bought a pair of bearings at a Phoenix hot rod shop which were in Mac's packaging. There is a 68-1225 part number on the packaging. The interesting thing is that they were marked "Made in Denmark". Does anyone have any experience with these bearings, or Danish bearings in general?
Joe

 

[Rich Overton]

Could be SKF manufacturer. Might check with George at Olcar bearing 1-910-693-3324. If they are SKF, their reputation in the past was excellent European quality.
Good luck

Rich.

 

[37 Coupe]

It doesn't matter if the are SKF, Timken or any of the name brands original Ford used would be better. The ones that were failing a few years ago were a name brand,this was mentioned in several tech articles in V8 Times. Problem was that the rollers were good,they knew how to duplicate Ford on that part but not the ends or the cages,they failed and ruined the axle housing bearing surface. I have bought rear brake drums that I thought looked good or knew they were low mileage just to harvest the bearings,wide five or up to 1948. I have found the article explaining rear wheel bearing failure. It was in Dick Flynn's Tech Tips,page 9 March April 1997 Early Ford Club V8 Times.. Although I am not a Dick Flynn fan especially his constant promoting of Amsoil productcts and his recommendation of synthetic rear wheel bearing grease,I do think he had something on this heads up. The bearings in question were a name brand Federal Mogul,the bearings failed and ruined axle housings because of non hardened side rails,supposedly Fords were hardened or tempered. Guess I would make sure if you insist on thinking that new and name brand are better,check side rails with a file.

 

[Rich Overton]

Not to split hairs here but, I am no youngster but I guess I am not old enough to remember Ford having their own bearing plants. As long as I can remember, Ford put out to bid, their requirements for bearings to various U.S. Bearing Manufacturers. That changed in the '70's and '80,s when they went offshore. The outer rails as you call them are outer races. The outer nor the inner races move. The outer is pressed into the housing and the inner is pressed onto the shaft. The rollers or balls rotate on the races and are the only part in motion. If either the housing or shaft (axle) is worn, the outer race or inner race (depending which is worn) will be able to move or rotate causing extreme heat. Thus the bearing will fail. This happens when new bearings are installed onto worn components. The question becomes, " why did the prior bearings fail?" Do the new bearings fit with enough resistance? If not, then there is wear either in the housing or on the shaft. Are these components "blue" from heat? The result of the races being able to rotate, steel against steel. Not too many things cause a bearing to fail. The major two are lack of lubrication or setting them too tightly in the case of a roller bearing such as on the front spindles. If they were Federal Mogul ( a major supplier to FOMOCO) they would be marked BCA ( ball bearings) if roller or needle bearings they would have been marked Bower. If they were marked Fomoco there is an excellent chance that those were manufactured by F.M. for Ford.

I would like to read Mr. Flynn's article. Do you have any information as to where I might find it?

Thanks very much,
Rich

 

[19Fordy]

Here's picture of Henry's original bearing on the right and today's repro. on the left. Don't know who made the repro.

 

[38 coupe]

C & G sells the only reproduction bearing with hardened cages that I am aware of. I have had good luck with the pair I bought from them a few years ago.

 

[19Fordy]

C & G sells the only reproduction bearing with hardened cages that I am aware of. I have had good luck with the pair I bought from them a few years ago.

How do you know the cages were hardened? Did you check them with a smooth file?