1922-28 Buick Standard Front wheel bearing & lip seal

[Hubert_25-25]

Does anyone have a modern lip seal number that they have used for their front wheel bearings.  The same size for 1922 -24 4 cylinder, 1925 & 26 Standard, and 1927-28 ser 115.   I was wanting to upgrade from the felt.  Also notes added about wheel bearings below.  Thank you,    Hugh

Edited January 16, 2019 by Hubert_25-25 (see edit history)

[Leif Holmberg]

I have used my original front wheel seals in 49 years now without any problem.!

Leif in Sweden.

[Fred Rawling]

Hugh,

 

I have the felt seals for $12.50 a pair.  Like Leif says,  they work fine.  fred.rawlng@live.com

[Brian_Heil]

Running felt here as well for 22+ years. No issues. I have more trouble with grease leaking past where the outer hub bolts to the spokes. The gasket there is like grocery sack paper with 6 holes. 

 

Seeing your bearing pic reminds me. The front wheel bearing balls on my car were spalled but the cone and race were perfect when I bought the car. 

 

I ordered correct diameter ball bearings from McMaster Carr and carefully swapped them out in the cage. The cage is razor sharp but you can do it. That was 40,000 miles ago. 

 

Rear wheel bearings on a ‘23 6 cylinder are still used in industry and available from a bearing supply house or online for 1/3 the price the old car bearing people want to charge. The size is metric as most were and still are.  Those were spalled too when I bought my car. 

 

I’ve mentioned this all before but never hurts to share again.  

[Hubert_25-25]

Leif/Fred/Brian - Thank you for letting me know that the felt holds up in this application.

 

Fred,   Thanks for letting me know about the felt seals.  I am working on a package deal of bearings and seals so I will let you if I need these from you. 

 

Brian, I have been inspecting the bearings and I need to address these as well.  Bearing numbers are 909004 for inner front bearings, and 909003 for outer front bearings 1922 4 cylinder thru 1928 ser 115.  

Of the 4 bearing units, really only 1 is acceptable (no picture).  The outer bearings taking the brunt as they have fewer rollers to support the load.   

This bearing is the barely acceptable, but will be replaced.  The bearing race is still smooth, but you can see that this race is beginning to go.  

This bearing race is a shame that it has this 1 spot.  So it must be replaced

This cup has "tracks" in it, so it must be replaced. 

Replacing just the balls in this cage is an acceptable solution as you suggest.

This is the cone.   Respectfully submitted to the trash bin.

One other note.

There is a screw in the side of the hub that on one wheel had a grease fitting.  It is a shame that they even put this screw connection here.  All this does is put a massive amount of grease in the hub internals, and not in the bearings unless you go hog wild with the grease gun, and then you never really cleaned out the old grease, and you have grease coming out the threads and into the brake drum.  

The proper way to do wheel bearing is as we do on modern cars.  

You remove the hub. 

disassemble and wash the parts in solvent.  Inspect the bearings and races.   

Use new grease

Reassemble the wheel.

* This is true for the rear wheel as well.  This is not a good grease fitting location.      Hugh

 

[Hubert_25-25]

This is an update on my front wheels and bearings.  I have not been able to locate wheel bearings.  I did find one NOS inner wheel bearing, but none for the outer wheel bearings.   Fortunately I only needed one inner bearing and the conversion to a roller bearing here requires 2 bushings would need to be made .  One place in Europe claimed to have bearings, but then I found in a search that this bearing house was a scam.  So not too difficult to replace the front outer ball bearings with roller bearings.  The old bearings races did take some persuasion to remove.   These photos show the tools used to replace the bearings, and a drawing of the bushing you will need to have made for the outer bearings.  I also installed Lip seals instead of using felt here, but the felt works fine in this application.  I did have to use 2 wraps of electrical tape to make the lip seal fit snugly so that I could hammer it in.    Hugh

  

  

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Hubert_25-25 (see edit history)

[nzwookie]

Hi guys. I know this post is a bit like our cars and getting on a bit, but I have just had both rear wheels off my 25-25 to clean the diff oil off my brakes etc, I also failed my warrant of fitness due to a front wheel bearing.

I tried a few bearing suppliers and one tracked two assemblies down from Australia! (NOS)

I have just installed them in one wheel only. They cost me NZ$550 so not cheap but pretty lucky to find these!