Upgrade tapered kit for 1956 Buick front wheel bearings

My mechanic wants to replace the front wheel bearings on my 1956 Buick Roadmaster with an upgrade kit that has tapered wheel bearings. Do such upgrades exist and where would I find them. Jeff Cook 907-322-2146.

The car has run with ball bearings for 60 years. Why bother changing to taper roller bearings unless you cant get the ball bearings?

They are not readily available anymore. They were used in the 1950's and 1960's

909065R outer bearing set

909062R inner bearing set (these are 1958 numbers which are backward compatible)

Not the 'R' suffix which denotes roller and is added to the more common ball bearing number.

I searched once and found some =$$$$$ and the brand was not recognizable, so performance would be questionable...you would still need to carry a ball bearing set if you had a failure on the road.

If you stick with ball bearings look for good American made stuff like New Departure from back then. New replacements from Buick suppliers is 'Pacific rim' and is junk (race does not match the ball curvature).

Willie

Alaska, parts might be a little hard to find over the counter. I put all four ball bearing sets in my 1960 in 2002, still going fine. If it is not an immediate need run two searches on Ebay for 909062 and 909065. When one shows up for under 50 bucks grab it. $200 to $300 isn't bad for all four.

Keep them greased and adjusted and you will be fine for a couple of decades at least.

The balls are most sensitive to jars and direct hits from pot holes and the like. It will brinell your balls and nobody likes that.

I always stay aware of the sensitivity of my balls when I drive and avoid anything that might jar them. Your mechanic may have had a bad experience with his in the past. But that may have been prior to these vehicles reaching collector status and the balls were treated to rough daily use. Just use moderately good judgement and the original equipment should be fine.

Bernie

I always stay aware of the sensitivity of my balls when I drive and avoid anything that might jar them. ...

Bernie

Sage advice .....

Plus one^^^

Check out this disk conversion bracket and bearings from Scarebird. https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=57

They are a local company in my area of WA and they also have a simple bracket to mount a dual MC from Wilwood https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=123

or another mount https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=132