Finding parts for a 100 year old car…

[hidden_hunter]

Following on from the earlier post about how do we find parts for old cars I thought I’d share my experience from today….

 

I had an issue with my brakes jamming on and I decided it was time to pull it all apart and clean everything out. Everything looked in decent serviceable condition until I got to the bearings, one of which had a crack in a roller and the other was very worn with a noticeable lip on it 

 

So what to do? How do I find replacement bearings for a 100 year old car where the parts book doesn’t identify anything about them?

 

Turns out it was rather simple, I cleaned them up and noticed that the bearing and cup were stamped with a part number from Timken - checked their online guide and found that while the design has changed to a more modern type, their part numbers hadn’t changed and all of the measurements lined up with part number from over 100 years ago.

 

Jumped on Amazon and ordered 4 of them, coming from the US in 3 weeks 

 

Sometimes you get lucky with the part search

[edinmass]

Most of the time, you can cross bearings numbers........recently I had two interesting ones. My 1917 White rear wheel bearing crossed to the same number as it did 105 years ago. The 700 dollar price tag from Timken was a shocker........bought some out of South Korea for less than 200 each. The throw out bearing on Phil"s 34 Buick was bad. The "Buick" go to guys all said they were not available for the last 30 years. I was able to cross the number in a 40's bearing book..........and found hundreds of them for under 20 bucks. Almost any bearing from 1895 to today is metric........and industrial applications are readily available. Car applications are often times specialty use.......and you can easily be out of luck on transmission and fan bearings.

[Dandy Dave]

39 minutes ago, edinmass said:

Most of the time, you can cross bearings numbers........recently I had two interesting ones. My 1917 White rear wheel bearing crossed to the same number as it did 105 years ago. The 700 dollar price tag from Timken was a shocker........bought some out of South Korea for less than 200 each. The throw out bearing on Phil"s 34 Buick was bad. The "Buick" go to guys all said they were not available for the last 30 years. I was able to cross the number in a 40's bearing book..........and found hundreds of them for under 20 bucks. Almost any bearing from 1895 to today is metric........and industrial applications are readily available. Car applications are often times specialty use.......and you can easily be out of luck on transmission and fan bearings.

Totally agree. I've done this many times myself. The only ones that are often odd are bearings Caterpillar made themselves. As the old Caterpillar Mechanics around here would say, "Get those from the great yellow pussycat, or not at all." In this area Bearing Supply in Troy, NY is a good place to go for standard off the shelf bearings. Dandy Dave.  

Edited January 6, 2023 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[TheCatOfAges]

I love when manufacturers remain consistent with part numbers.

[hidden_hunter]

7 hours ago, edinmass said:

The 700 dollar price tag from Timken was a shocker

I have to say that they seem very expensive for what they are, Amazon surprisingly was by far the cheapest at about 70 bucks a bearing 

[Dandy Dave]

16 hours ago, hidden_hunter said:

I have to say that they seem very expensive for what they are, Amazon surprisingly was by far the cheapest at about 70 bucks a bearing 

Love them or hate them. If that's the best deal one proceeds to purchase...

[hidden_hunter]

Just now, Dandy Dave said:

them or hate them. If that's the best deal one proceeds to purchase...

Like lots of things they have their place, some things they’re great for and then other things they’re more expensive than target/costco etc. 

 

Nobody else was even remotely close price wise 

[Larry Schramm]

Amazon seems to have lost their edge.  Not always the best place to purchase items. Don't get me wrong, they are still good, but they are in the process of laying off 18,000 persons.

[arcticbuicks]

it still amazes me how a car can go years riding on a little bearing with tiny rollers and very little grease 

[2carb40]

Hollanders Interchange Manual has an amazing bearing application, ID and interchange section. When one of the local suppliers was done converting to computer only bearing part number lookup, they graciously gave me their commercial bearing and seal application/interchange books. Been a great resource.

[60FlatTop]

In my line of work 100 year old bearings are fairly common. As is overreaction if they hint at needing service.

[TheCatOfAges]

Ran the numbers, its off of a 1959 Mercury 383, 350-400 cfm... didnt expect that from a two barrel.