REAR BEARING LUBRICATION

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks for all the info....cofirms what I found out over the past few hours. I'm still not sure how he ended up with a new style bearing. His comment was he thought that was what I wanted, I'm not so sure he just already had them on hand. Anyway, had I not changed to a different disc brake kit than originally planned, I certainly never would have known the difference. Colby is mainly into racing machines and usually deals with much heavier duty stuff, so the street variety/50's cars is somewhat new to him as well. After talking with him, we came to the conclusion that what I had should work, and if it didn't or had problems (leaking, etc)he'd change out the bearings to the sealed type. The sealed bearings he uses have an o-ring on the outside race surface.
The ouside seal thet is used with the tapered bearing is a different height apparently that the sealed old style bearing would have been, and since my brackets were made for the old style height, some shimming will be required. I just spent an hour or so fiddling with shims, and I think it's going to be just fine. He, and his go-to guy for street rod stuff that was at his shop this afternoon, both said there should be a "small amount" of endplay on the axle. After I got everything torqued down, I have what I think would be an acceptable end play of about .006 in/out. I can barely feel it, but that's what I'm getting with caliper measurement. I haven't checked for binding yet, I'll do that tommorrow.

[Hoosier Hurricane]

Rich.  Let's go back to your original question.  Lube.  Think what happens when the seals went bad on the old ball bearing style axles.  Lots of rear end grease on the brakes and spinning out in radial streaks on the inside of the tire.  I am sure plenty of lube will reach your new tapered bearings.   John

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks John, your input is always appreciated. I forgot to mention in my last post I did install that first axle with plenty of sticky stuff/assembly lube on the bearing.

[hiball3985]

Thanks John, your input is always appreciated. I forgot to mention in my last post I did install that first axle with plenty of sticky stuff/assembly lube on the bearing.

Be sure to put some lube on the seal also. This set up looks like changing a seal would require removing the bearing from the axle unlike the OEM that you can just pull out and install a new one in a couple of minutes?

[RICH MUISE]

Yep, a definite disadvantage. Hope mine doesn't leak. There is a drop of the (red) engine assembly lube I put all over the bearing...don't know if it's a drop from intallation or from leakage...I'll keep an eye on it.
I'm going to go back to my build thread for any followups on the disc brake install.

[hiball3985]

Rich, not being knowledgeable about this type of axle/bearing set up I'm trying to understand more about it. So, my question is when you have a separate race and bearing how or what sets the bearing preload when you install the axle?

[RICH MUISE]

Well, I'm not knowledgeable about it either...lol...I guess that's a statement of the obvious.
Apparently the preload is controled by the bearing retainer. As I mentioned, I was told that the bearing needs to have a little end play. Also, my brake kit instructions kinda confirm that as the instructions say to use the included shims under the mounting plate to "get the proper end play". I'm still trying to get a confirmation that the .006 end play I now have is acceptible...seems like it would be, I just don't know.
Just thinking out loud here....Just from a mechanical thought....two tapered surfaces are going to have not much of a tolerance of where the contact point is..too much presure and the rollers won't function..too little and it'll get too sloppy real quick.
My thought is, I have .006 end play, but I,m assuming that's in and out play in the bearing housing that contain the rollers, and not .006 at the roller's contact with the race. I don't know if that makes sense, but what I'm trying to say is, I would think a tappered bearing would have such a minimal tolerance for proper contact, that the housing would be designed to make it more tolerant.

[hiball3985]

OK, now I see that shims are used to make the adjustment. .006 sounds like a good number to me, that should allow for expansion when the parts are hot. Thats about the same amount I use on free floating axles.

[gasman826]

Since Late Big Bearings are a tapered, sealed unit, too loose with cause the sealing portion of the bearing to prematurely fail (leak).  Tapered bearings typically have preload.  The retainer plate creates preload.

[RICH MUISE]

And how is that preload checked when it is determined by the pressure put on it by the bearing retainer? There must be some specs/general rules or practices that apply.

[hiball3985]

Off the subject but thought you might like this.
http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/index.html

[RICH MUISE]

That was a cool test...my eyes aren't what they use to be! I could lie, but out of 5 times, only two were left of the average point on the graph.

[hiball3985]

That was a cool test...my eyes aren't what they use to be! I could lie, but out of 5 times, only two were left of the average point on the graph.

A few years ago I did pretty good, but this last try I was only average too. My accuracy was pretty good but my time was way slower then it use to be..