What a Day

SANTA Ray

SANTA Ray

Member
We are in the Yukon in route to AK from GA. Yesterday a front outer wheel bearing went bad. We started out after filling up and I noticed a noise, thought it was a break dragging.

We stopped and pulled the front wheel. The hub was so hot it burned the paint off around the outer bearing, After getting the hub off the inner race was welded to the spindal. It took 4 hours to drill cut and chizel off the bearing piece at a time. I was thinking we would have to back track to a museum we stopped at and get a spindal off one of the A's they had and have a replacement sent in.

Well with the help of my partner also in his A we got it off filed the spindal back into shape installed new bearings and all is well. It took five hours to git-R-done.
 
I almost forgot -- I also got help from a new Model A friend "ED" on the road. We had met him at a stop earlier on the trip. He is vacationing in the area, driving modern steel. He stopped when he saw we were having problems. He stayed with us, helped and was the guy with a drill.

A special thanks to ED if he is reading this post.
 
SANTA Ray said:
We are in the Yukon in route to AK from GA. Yesterday a front outer wheel bearing went bad. We started out after filling up and I noticed a noise, thought it was a break dragging.

We stopped and pulled the front wheel. The hub was so hot it burned the paint off around the outer bearing, After getting the hub off the inner race was welded to the spindal. It took 4 hours to drill cut and chizel off the bearing piece at a time. I was thinking we would have to back track to a museum we stopped at and get a spindal off one of the A's they had and have a replacement sent in.

Well with the help of my partner also in his A we got it off filed the spindal back into shape installed new bearings and all is well. It took five hours to git-R-done.
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Chief, my dad, would have been proud of you!! Same thing happened to us in a '29 Chev. on Route 66 near Kingman Az. in the 1940's.
 
Do you have an Itinerary once here in Alaska. We are having cool damp weather here in Fairbanks right now, hoping it dries out soon, but it is holding fires and smoke at bay.
 
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Santa Ray, What a great trip! I'm following along and really enjoying it, and i'm just over the SC line in Westminster....neighbor ;) Happy trails to you and your group.
 
According to your blog: Our Alaskan Adventure you say you will be in Fairbanks tomorrow, does this mean Fairbanks Thursday or on Friday and how long are you planning on being in the Interior. I am in hopes of swapping out the radiator on my Phaeton tonight or tomorrow. I can give you my cell number if you like.
Darryl in Fairbanks
 
Did you determine or have speculation on why you had a bearing failure? Were they inspected greased and adjusted correctly before the trip?
 
SANTA Ray said:
We are in the Yukon in route to AK from GA. Yesterday a front outer wheel bearing went bad. We started out after filling up and I noticed a noise, thought it was a break dragging.

We stopped and pulled the front wheel. The hub was so hot it burned the paint off around the outer bearing, After getting the hub off the inner race was welded to the spindal. It took 4 hours to drill cut and chizel off the bearing piece at a time. I was thinking we would have to back track to a museum we stopped at and get a spindal off one of the A's they had and have a replacement sent in.

Well with the help of my partner also in his A we got it off filed the spindal back into shape installed new bearings and all is well. It took five hours to git-R-done.
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Ray,
Wow, you are resourceful....and LUCKY! Ever see a spindle cut off clean like knife thru hot butter:confused: I have, from seized/fused bearing and race!
We might benefit from your accessment as to why this failure occurred, if you care to share that, i.e.- repo bearing; lack of lub;proper adj; regular PM..what?
BTW..Would you give up your view, so far, of the road conditions that you've encountered. As I've driven thru there several years ago(modern iron), it would be interesting to compare any bad road that you encounter while using a Model A vs modern veh:).
Just now located/read your blog site...great stuff! Thanks for sharing.
 
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Sorry it took so long to get back. I'm not sure why the bearing failed. Looking back I would say I had signs that something was wrong but thought it was a brake shoe issue. The bearing had been cleaned and re-packed prior to the trip and all looked well?? Guess just one of those things.

I am in Fairbanke today 6/18. If any locals are interested call my cell 678-478-4136.
 
I didn't have Internet access yesterday so I didn't see your post until after 10:00 pm last night. I was working on my Phaeton all day in town, will be working on it some more this morning, getting ready for the Fathers Day car show from 11:00 AM to 2:00 pm at Sourdough Fuel on Van Horn Road.
Darryl 907-378-7140
 
Perhaps the bearing was adjusted too tight? Specs for modern cars and pickups with tapered roller bearings (identical to your Model A) call for first tightening the bearing so there is preload and rotating the hub back and forth to seat the bearings: then backing the nut off to zero to .005" endplay, making sure that there is no preload. My Model A Instruction Book says "tighten adjusting nut until the hub just starts to bind. Then back off the adjusting nut one or two notches until the hub can be freely revolved." So, while no specs are given, you can see that you end up with no preload using this method.
 
SANTA Ray said:
...I am in Fairbanke today 6/18. If any locals are interested call my cell 678-478-4136.
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I saw from Teri's blog that you are headed our way. FYI our group has a planned event on Tuesday June 21st "Solstace Rumble" at Mirror Lake, just outside Anchorage from 5 to 10pm. We would be all too happy to have y'all as our honored guests. Please call me (907-350-1995) or Jim Fredenhagen (907-351-3115) when you get to Anchorage and we'll treat you so many ways, you are bound to like some of them.
Carl
 
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