Checked the tech archives to the best of my ability and found nothing...has anyone made up a list of changeover from ball to taper roller bearing for 40s-60s chevys?....the parts houses around here say it's impossible but I did this in the 60s on my '49 and '56 Chev..... ........Need to know if there are tapers for a '58 Biscayne...... Thanks for any help, Randy
When I had a 58 and later a 60 Chevy, I used the hub and drum from the first year of roller bearing cars. drop right on replacement. maybe 62?
Yep any of the 60's. Front drum on 60's is wider but the rears are the same, so grab the rear drums if you need them.
Is there a disadvantage to the ball bearings? I have them on my spindle and the grease seal crossed over to a '62 Corvette. This was the only application, I packed them up and am still running them. Hope someone has the answer to this question. They seem to roll smooth and the spindle looks fine. I hope to never have a problem with them, but it would be good to have an option.
OK guys...found the Timken catalog online...here's all the years Taper brgs for early Chevys...hopefully it will get into our TECH dept: 46-54 seal..............................6064(2) Brg (In)...........................B52(2) Brg (out).........................B01(2) 55 seal..............................6985(2) Brg (in)...........................B40(2) Brg (out).........................B41(2) 56-57 seal..............................6985(2) Brg (in)..........................,B40(2) Brg (out).........................B01(2) 58-60 seal..............................7107A(2) cone/cup(in)...LM67048,LM67019(2) cone/cup(out).LM11949,LM11919(2)
Keep some good grease on the ball bearings. They will last as long as you will. Roller bearings were a cost cutting thing.
The problem with the ball bearings we had was with reversed wheels...also the cost was quite high compared to taper brgs which are really much better wheel bearings.... Thanks for comments anyways guys.... RDR
The only disadvantage is that the "point loading" or the amount of bearing surface that is bearing (no pun intended) the load on a ball bearing is very small compared to that of a roller bearing. Under hard use or heavy loads they are more subject to brinelling than a roller bearing is. Under normal use ball bearings work very well, and will last forever as long as they are serviced regularly.
The outer bearing is kind of overloaded if you have wide or reverse wheels. Rollers seem to deal with the overloading a bit better, plus the bearings are less expensive. For the 55-60 cars you can just use 61-64 hubs, easy way to get roller bearings. I still run ball bearings in my old trucks, it's not a big deal.
If what you are asking is whether you can just replace the ball bearings with rollers, I don't think so and the reason is that the ball bearings were all in metric sizes. Also, if you do run the ball bearings, as others have said use a really good grease and maybe pack them a little more often. One advantage to the ball bearings is low rolling resistance.
bought my old 49 chevy, then 3 weeks later drove 350 miles to Paso Robles and back. when I got back I had a noise coming from the front end... after taking things apart a ball bearing came out of the cage and had scored my spindle. that's what is wrong with ball bearings. I fixed that problem when I went with disc brakes
RDR you might want to do some more research on your bearing numbers. The B52 shown as a 46/54 inner comes out as a sealed bearing.
Yep, just going by Autozones' part catalog , the replacement bearings shown were a sealed looking type. Expensive, too.
I don't know how many times I heard my dad preach "I told you not to run those d@mn reversed rims...nothing but trouble" after burning up another set of ball bearings. Finally got smart and upgraded all my 55-57's to the later hubs w/ tapered bearings and never had another problem.
There is probably another bearing manufacturer using the old BCA number, but B52 really is the inner bearing for the old chevys.
OK - Here is the place to get the tapered roller bearings for the front end. They have the seals too. http://www.superpages.com/bp/Los-Angeles-CA/Allied-Bearing-Sales-Inc-L0018138791.htm i bought mine from them for my 51 Chevy. Everything fit good. Here are the pics of them and you can see the part #.
l always try to replace ball bearings with rollers, on my 55 Olds, I had several failures of the ball bearings. I drove the car well over 130,000 miles between 83 and 2003. I repacked the brearings in the beginning of the cruise season, each year. The factory shop manual recommends replacing the wheel bearing grease every 1000 miles. Even with today's better additives in WB grease, the ball bearing still do not hold up very well.
Don't screw around with auto parts stores when purchasing bearings or seals for an old car. Your just asking for a headache. Look in the yellow pages under "bearings". You will most likely find a local supplier that will fix you right up with no hassles. Either give them the numbers off the old parts or measure the shaft and bore diameters. Metric or inch, does not matter.
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