Bruzilla
Well-Known Member
- Local time
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- Joined
- Jan 11, 2012
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- Location
- Orange Park, FL
My 74 Roadrunner picked up a shimmy recently, and I started looking at the suspension for a cause. I thought one of my wheels felt a little loose, and I took a look at the wheel bearings. I replaced these about four years ago, but the car has been driven well less than 1,000 miles since then due to it getting an engine swap.
When I pulled the outer wheel bearing from the driver's side front wheel, it looked like a dog had been chewing on it. There were gouges on all the rollers! When I cleaned out the grease, it was full of metal flakes. I replaced the races when I did the bearings, and the races were smooth as a baby's ***, so it looks like just simple wear, over a very short time, was causing those bearings to fail, which tells me they were made of very poor quality steel.
These were sold under the National brand, but came from China and those parts get relabeled by everyone over here.
When I pulled the outer wheel bearing from the driver's side front wheel, it looked like a dog had been chewing on it. There were gouges on all the rollers! When I cleaned out the grease, it was full of metal flakes. I replaced the races when I did the bearings, and the races were smooth as a baby's ***, so it looks like just simple wear, over a very short time, was causing those bearings to fail, which tells me they were made of very poor quality steel.
These were sold under the National brand, but came from China and those parts get relabeled by everyone over here.