My old 250- series Ferrari ('62- '63) used ball front wheel bearings, too.
There was a big double- row ball bearing on the inside and a smaller double-
row ball bearing on the outside. The bearings were assembled with the proper
ball/race clearances at the factory, so there were no worries about preload
or clearances. Front wheels were mounted on the spindle and the axle nut was
torqued to spec and a cotter pin was inserted-- that's it.
Tapered roller bearings (first patented by Timken?) relieved car
manufacturers of having to hold extremely close tolerances in their spindles
and they were far cheaper to produce. Balls do have lower drag but less
load- carrying ability for a given size.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: ardunbill@webtv.net [mailto:ardunbill@webtv.net]
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 6:26 AM
To: land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: Chevy Front Wheel Ball-Bearings
Hi folks, the mention of the above reminded me of when I worked at a gas
station around '60 and the Chevys would come in with ball-type front
wheel bearings.
I was always curious why Chevy made millions of them like that(and we
saw a lot of them bad at the station) when you have a more or less
line-contact situation taking the beating and battering, which is also
dependent on the adjustment. Far as I know this practice disappeared
long ago in favor of the taper rollers that most other makers used in
this application. And don't tell me, I know the back axles always had
"balls". But now with IRS I imagine they are all taper rollers too.
I remember that a "hot tip" for racers many years ago was to replace
their taper-roller Ford wheel bearings with the Chevy style, for less
drag on a race car.
Anybody on this list know the "natural history" of Chevy ball wheel
bearings? Ardun Bill
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