Best Wheel Hubs?

[Guest Mike_s]

At 130k it's time to replace my 88's front hubs. Any pros or cons with the ones you have used? comments?

FWIW A little search on the web came up with the comments below, your guess is as good as mine as to how vaild they are.

"I work in a parts house, BCA's are the same as ACDelco, we have sold 100's with no returns"

"The NAPA guy said NAPA had sold Timkens for almost 30 yrs? but had dropped them recently because the quality wasn't there anymore"

" I work for a bearing distributor, Timkens are much better than BCA's".

When seeing what was available I came across these units

Rockauto: Timken $61, BCA\National $75, ACDelco $170 S&H ?

Summit racing carries Wheelbearing inc hubs apx $100.00 inc s&h http://www.wheelbearingsinc.com/about-us-7/

An ebay store also carries the Wheelbearing inc hubs for $54 + $19 s&H, but site doesn't look particuarly established if you check the feedback.

[Richard S]

As with so many other machined parts, it is doubtful there are nearly as many manufacturers as there brands. What makes you think you need to replace the hubs? 130k is not really beyond the expected lifespan of the hub; maybe the bearings and seals.

[Guest Mike_s]

There's a low level rumble developing, almost like a deep low growl. I can feel it as much as hear it and the car seems to glide less. If I go down a straight road and turn a bit to the left the condition is more noticeable, less so if I turn to the right.

I havent seen just the bearings and seals on any of the parts house web sites, I'll take another look.

After doing a search it looks like a few people have had to replace them sooner. I do have to admitt though, that I might "entusiastically" drive thru curves at times, so, maybe their early demise is understandable

[Richard S]

I stand corrected, Mike. The bearings are part of the hub and are not sold separately. Only the seal is [$3-5 per side]. rockauto.com seems to have a good price for Timken at $61. The rears are much more at $105. They can be had on ebay for as little at $45 front and $75 rear. You would have to ask the sellers who makes them.

[Guest Mike_s]

Richard thanks for looking into the replaceable bearings for me, it probably would have been easier and much less expensive.

Replacing the front hubs had a similar effect on the ride as when replacing worn, noisy, slightly unbalanced and hard rubber tires with new well made ones, a much smoother and quieter ride.

For the most part I've found it's hard to tell if one brand is that much better than another, major brands all seem to have both advocates and detractors. The general concensus I found was to generaly shy away from imported no-name\house brands.

Several posts commented that most "brand" names are made by the same parent company, as to if they are of similar quality is unknown to me.

per http://forums.corvetteforum.com/archive/index.php/t-1685912.html

Quote "Racers specifically chose CR Bearings for C4 Vette application because they hold up well. The GM parts were always grossly overpriced and they have no warranty.

The OEM C4 bearings were made for AC Delco by CR Bearing (Chicago Rawhide of Illinois). This fact was verified by several racers and C4 experts including hrocks who instructed and raced C4 for about 15 years. There were many posts on this subject in the racing forum section, but they were purged years ago. The original C4 hubs had CR stamped right on them. The OEM supplier for GM may have changed more than once.

There's some confusion surfacing these days about bearings because many folks are unaware that most USA bearing facilities have been shut down because they are not cost competitive. The Swedish SKF Company recently bought out CR and the huge Asian NTN Company has recently absorbed BCA, Timken, Sealed Power, other notables. Some folks are dismayed when they buy BCA bearings (Bearing Corp of America) and discover they come from Asia. If you buy a GM, NTN or SKF bearing today, you will likely get a foreign-made part. Timken boxes invariably contain asian-sourced NTN bearings these days, unless they are NOS (new-old stock). Asian businesses are quite clever. They use the USA mfr names they bought thru buyout to sell their product." unquote

A couple of things led me to purchase some SKF's, general positive comments in the Covette site, and I think that Gregg Ross has gone thru a couple of Federal Mogule\BCA\timkin rear hubs. The SKF's were about $100 each at a local parts house, had made in USA on the box but the actual bearings were labeled Spain.

The hubs I removed had NDH? on them, the original bearing had about a 3/16 larger dia than the replacements, perhaps something else to consider for judging?

For those that are interested here are a couple more corvette racing links, with some disscusion of ball bearings vs. tapered rollers.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1392417

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?p=1553983386&highlight=100+miles+street+driving#post1553983386

[padgett]

I have used mainly Timkens because they are not made in china (at least the ones I needed) and locally available. Are about 15% more expensive than Chinese. Was not aware of a buyout.

Timken does talk about foreign offices but there is no mention of NTN. OTOH see http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/products/2746063/spherical_roller_bearing.html

NTN is New Technology Network (Japan)

NDH was/is New Departure-Hyatt.

Company Name:GENERAL MOTOR CORP NEW DEPARTURE-HYATT BEARING DIV

Address:2509 HAYES AVE

Box:City:SANDUSKY

State:OH

ZIP:44870-5359

[Ronnie]

The Test Department where I worked did extensive testing of all major brands of bearings. Timken always came out on top with superior ratings. The Test Department attributed it to Timken making their own metal, that was used in their bearings, giving them better quality control where some of the others outsourced their metal. Timken, Hayatt, Brenco and SKF were the only bearings the Test Department approved for use. SKF usually came in last in the tests.

Some of the bearings tested were precision bearings 10" in diameter and costing thousands of dollars. They were used in the headstock of large lathes. We only installed Timken bearings in them.

[Guest Greg Ross]

Mike S mentioned my rear wheel bearing experience(s)

I've been thru, I'll say from memory, about 3 or 4 sets of rears? And I've bought "OEM"(whoever they were) and "Aftermarket" and gotten similar service life?.

At 315,000 miles my front wheel bearings still check out Ok, no play/ or slop evident when checked. Mind you everything else in the front end has been changed out including the lower A-arms, ball joints, etc. Struts have been done twice!

Any chance you're hearing another noise, like maybe a motor mount or maybe a suspension bushing?

Have you jacked up the front end and checked for play?

[Guest Mike_s]

Ronnie,

I came across one post which said in general Timkin made better roller bearing and SKF had better roller bearings. Did you see any evidence of that?

Greg,

Well, I've already replaced the bearings and car does ride a lot smoother. I suspect the bearings still had some life in them but I didn't want to chance it.

I didn't notice anything loose, but the body mounts and sway bar bushings are probably original, and are on the "to do" list. When rotated by hand I didn't notice any problems with the old bearings.

[Guest Mike_s]

Hey Ronnie,

Here's Estaver's write up on changing a hub, you may want to consider it for your site

http://forums.aaca.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=3&Number=430037&Searchpage=4&Main=100061&Words=wheel+%2Bbearing&topic=0&Search=true#Post430037

And this one for R&R of the heater core

http://forums.aaca.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=3&Number=218084&Searchpage=1&Main=54235&Words=Jim+Tedesco&topic=0&Search=true#Post218084

[Ronnie]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I came across one post which said in general Timkin made better roller bearing and SKF had better roller bearings. Did you see any evidence of that? </div></div>

Mike, I assume you meant <span style="font-weight: bold">roller</span> bearings as compared to <span style="font-weight: bold">ball</span> bearings? Anyway, our test department always recommended Timken as a first choice in critical, high stress applications. They not only tested random samples of bearings in the test lab, but analyzed oil samples that were taken on a monthly basis from gear boxes to determine how bearings in use were holding up. They thought that Timken made better bearings.

I have bookmarked the links you provided and will add them to the website soon.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Anyone know if the write ups cover all years of Reattas?</span>

I noticed the write ups were for an '88 model.