Strange wheel bearing failure

[Harley PHD]

I had no problems with my wheel bearings, but when I was doing my brakes I took them out to repack them.  After cleaning them in solvent I blew them dry with air and one half of a roller fell out.  I rolled the wheel before I took them apart and it was very smooth.  I think I could have put the roller halves together and reused the bearing. 

[Harley PHD]

[desoto1939]

check for any scoring.

Recommend that you just replace this wheel bearing assembly and also the races. Also check the other wheel bearings. These are cheap as compared to having a wheel lock up while driving and having a major accident and getting hurt or even killed because the car could not be controlled.

 

Rich hartung

[soth122003]

Hey Harley, if one roller did that, I'd be leery of the rest of them. Good news is the bearings and races aren't that expensive. Rock Auto has bearings and races for under $10. Just make sure you order by the bearing number on the old bearing. Ask me how I know? lol

 

Joe Lee

[Harley PHD]

I was kidding about reusing them, my next stop was NAPA.

[Noonan]

Is that bearing from a rear axle ?  Possibly the type that people use the brake drum as a slide hammer to pull the axle and bearing out ?   

[andyd]

My car has had vented front discs since about 1975........I found out the hard way that disc brakes MUST HAVE High Temperature wheel bearing grease .........at the time I was running steelies on the front without hubcaps and nothing beats driving on the freeway and feeling a wobble thru the steering wheel and then watching the drivers front wheel dust cap go sailing into the centre divide trailing smoke as it did so.........on inspection it had semi welded the bearing remains to the stub axle.......lol.........this was 45 yrs ago & taught me a valuable lesson.......I thru out all the standard wheel bearing grease after that episode..........lol........Harley.....what sort of grease are you using?.......andyd  

[SteveR]

I had a 1978 F150 I bought new. I was coming home from a 300-mile trip at 65mph when all of a sudden the truck jolted to the left. This happened several times and I pulled into a parking lot to inspect what sounded like a bad wheel bearing. When I knocked off the hub roller bearing fell out. Why? I don't know other than it was the worst vehicle I have ever owned. Was it a cheap bearing? I dont know but I have found it does not pay to buy cheap when it comes to bearings. Timkin seems to be the best.

I would replace all your bearings to be on the safe side.

[Dan Hiebert]

Although it would be at least somewhat interesting, it would probably be pointless to ascertain why, or how, that roller failed like that.  To me, that whole assembly just looks...old.  I'll throw my hat in the ring for replacing all of the bearings, unless you know for sure some are new enough for your liking.  I needed to repack the bearings on my '70 Beetle last year, the wheels spun nice and smooth, but I discovered that the front bearings were doomed to sooner rather than later failure.  They weren't original, were installed sometime before we got the car, and it was a sloppy job.  One of those you could tell just by looking at it that somebody didn't take care with such a relatively easy job.  So I put new bearings in all around just to be safe.  The car rides like an oxcart in the first place and I assumed the ride was just a Beetle being a Beetle, replacing those bearings noticeably, but not dramatically, smoothed the ride, so you might discover a slightly better ride as well. 

[Harley PHD]

Yes, I agree with you, I think it was an original bearing, outside front right wheel.  The seal on one side was still leather.  I used to take the outer bearing out and put the nut back on and hook the rear bearing with the nut and "slide hammer" the rear seal off the hub and reuse the seal.  I replaced all the front wheel bearings and thought about replacing the rear bearings, but ended up just replacing the rear outer seals and greasing the rear with a grease needle.