Old bearings in new races?

[MANZ]

I just replaced the rotors on my '94 4x4 and just cleaned and repacked the old bearings because they looked good still. The new rotors came with new races already in them - I didn't swap the old ones out. Now I am having a problem getting excess wheel play out of the hub assembly. If I torque the bearings to spec, there is a lot of wheel slop and wobble if I move the tire from top to bottom while on a lift. To get rid of any excess play, I have to torque the bearings way too tight. Were the old bearings not meant to run in new races?

 

[DeRocha]

Correct... when installing a new race you must use a new bearing and vice versa. The parts place should have recommended new bearings when you bought the rotors. Bearings and races are mates for life. When they are new they gradually become broken in. As such the new bearing shape is different than the worn race (you'd need a microscope to see the difference). But this slight difference is enough to cause the bearing slop.

Warning -you cannot correct this by over tightening the bearings. If you over tighten the bearings they will generate lots of heat and weld themselves onto the spindle. This won't be pretty. The final torque specs for the wheel bearing nut is only 15 in\lbs which is only 1.25 -2.0 ft/lbs.

 

[MANZ]

Thanks. That's what I always thought, but thought I'd check with a buddy of mine who's a fleet truck mechanic. He assured me that you could use an old bearing in a new race if the bearing was in good shape - says they do it all the time. I was leary about it but figured I'd trust him. Kind of sucks now since I have to not only get new bearings now but swap out the races now too since they have been in there for a couple hundred miles on the old bearings. I'm sure they are probably worn a little goofy now - enough that I don't want to take the chance.

Thanks again for confirming this.

 

[Opera House]

I'd have to say

That the old bearings are probably bad. While new is always better, I have never had problems using the old bearings if they were in good shape when I replaced rotors. Suspect you may have some other problem.

 

[DeRocha]

I would agree that you can use old bearings that are in good condition in new races, but Its difficult to determine the true condition of bearings. If you take a peek at (tech page) Timken Bearing life the wear is extremely small. If I installed new rotors I would use new bearings. I would only use old bearings if they looked perfect and had under, 50K on them.

How many miles were on the bearings?

Did you pre-load the bearings by spining the rotor while slowing torqing the nut to 35 ft/lbs

 

[MANZ]

I think the bottom line is that I should have used my common sense and just put in new bearings - I always thought bearings and races wore as a set and needed to be replaced as a set. My friend (the truck mechanic) was adamant that you could reuse the bearings if the looked good and put them in a new rotor with new races no problem. I guess I should have not listened to him. The bearings have 95k on them but looked good (I know, you can't tell squat from looking at them). I thoroughly cleaned, inspected, and repacked them. I followed the procedure in the manual to the letter - preloaded them to 35ft-lbs (while spinning rotor), back off 1/4 turn, torque to 16in-lbs. I put everything together and drove it for a couple of weeks and went to get an alignment. The alignment guy told me my bearings were shot and the wheel has tons of slop when lifted. So yesterday, I put it up and found a ton of slop in there. I took everything back apart and verified that the slop was in the bearings and not ball joints, etc. by overtorquing the bearing nut (to around 40ft-lbs), renstalled the tire, and checked for slop again. Go figure, no play whatsoever. Obviously, I can't torque my bearings that high, but they shouldn't have to be tightened any more than spec to remove excess play. My only conclusion now is that the bearings are worn in a different pattern or angle than the new races and I am a douchebag for not using my common sense and shouldn't have listened to my "mechanic" friend. Would you agree? (sorry, I'm just not happy at the fact I've just created a lot more work and expense for myself). BTW, is removing and replacing races on these hubs difficult with normal hand tools (hammer, punches)? Thanks.

 

[DeRocha]

I have not had to remove races from the rotors. I have heard it is a pain in the @$$, and that you should have them removed and pressed in by a local machine shop.

 

[Opera House]

It might have been

that the new outside section of the bearings in the rotors were not fully pressed in. Driving around pushed them in. I reused bearings in my 92 with more than 180K with no problem.

 

[aldive]

As cheap as new parts are, I would never reuse old ones.

 

[Blastingcaps]

bearings

It could be that the races were not set all the way to thier stop and when put under a load they seated but developed slop when they did . usually you can spot bad bearings by rotating them after they have been thoroly cleaned .. they will get rough placed where chips of bearimg have come off.. the races are easy to remove and insert using a hammer and a flat screw driver(large) or a flat nose chisel. Blastingcaps

 

[old mechanic]

I always used the old race with a block of wood to tap on to put the new races on. Then turn over and with a chizzle, chizzle the old race out. Carefully so you don't gouge the new race! Usually by the time you find out a bearing is bad it has alwready screwed up the race.
I have done it this way for years with no problems. But if you don't feel comfortable doing it this way I recommend having the bearing taken off and pressed on by a pro. That is a safer bet and you only do this probably once in the lifetime of your truck anyway so its a small one time cost. They will also grease pack it for you with a wheel bearing packer. Torque everything to spects. Thats the most important part. And don't forget to torque the lug nuts to spects so you won't warp the rotors. When I have new tires installed I always loosen them up and torque them. Those tire guys with the (one size fits all torque gun) are the rotor sales peoples best friends.
BTW: I did the same with the rear axle bearings. I just used the old bearing and with a pipe, taped it down until it was seated.