Thank goodness for Sat phone.

[John M]

ALWAYS pays to buy bearing from a bearing supplier and stick with Japanese or American manufactured.
I can remember when these were considered second rate manufacturers!
The problem with a lot of the Chinese manufacturers is that, like the early Japanese, they copy from a sample rather than work from a drawing, consequently, even though the tolerances are within allowances, they are working from an item that was also manufactured within tolerances. which can multiply the error.

I have seen (in the case of wheel bearings) when the inner race is too hard to get off the axle and the new outer race has been put on the old inner, not a good practice, but will often get you out of trouble until you get somewhere to remove it. Sometimes this can be done by a shoddy operator, just because it is too hard, and he neglects to tell anyone.

[T1 Terry]

If only the roller section of the bearing is changed and not the outer cup, the rollers will fail earlier than expected and without much warning. The rollers wear a matching pattern in the cup during normal service, if they are not replaced as a pair, the high spots in the cup place excessive load on the matching areas of the new rollers causing the brinelling (outer hardening of the roller) to fracture. When it finally parts company with the roller it tears the surface of the cup and other rollers, failure is rapid. Always replace both parts of a bearing at the same time, they are a matched set.
A trick for getting a stubborn bearing cup out, run a bead of weld with a stick welder around the bearing face, it will shrink and fall out when it cools, the inner race, break the roller cage and remove it and the rollers, with 2 hammers, hit the inner cone simultaneously on both sides, like hitting the hammer faces together but with the bearing cone in between, work your way around the bearing cone, it will stretch and slide off. If you try cutting it with an oxy torch or grinder, don't cut all the way through, take a shaving off each side, and finish it off with the hammers, all too easy to cut a piece of the axle’s bearing face if you try to cut the cone all the way through.

[Kelvin12]

Good to see you back home Terry. Might be worth mentioning loading tapered wheel bearings. Seems to many are tightened up to the death causing a failures.

Make sure the cup is home in the housing and not sitting away from the lip. Makes a different sound when its home in the housing. Make sure you don't hit the bearing surface with the drift, it will stuff it and maybe chip it. Fit the bearings and seals with a goodly amount of good quality wheel bearing grease, not chassis grease. Tap the seal in on the outer edge only don't dent the seal, it will leak if you do. Nip the nut while turning the wheel all the time then back it off so its just off the nip. Better slightly loose than tight. If the nut doesn't line up with the split pin hole go for the loose rather than tight. If its way off get a nut cap from Ford or spare parts dealer. They have in between notches for getting the correct adjustment. Fill the grease cap with grease, its a reserve if the bearing gets hot. Before you let it down off the jack hold the wheel top and bottom and wobble it, if the movement is slight then you are on the money. If it really got some movement then check the axle nut nipping again.

Dirk