Has anyone ever had a roller bearing rebuilt? To make a long story short my Coleman uses a HUGE wheel bearing. 5 5/8 ID. And expensive since I need 4 plus expensive races. Chuck could source them when I called him but I didnt have the cash and still don't. I have been doing some research and found a cheaper bearing with a 5 1/2 ID that uses the same race as the 5 5/8. Thought maybe I could turn the Coleman stub down 1/16 of an inch and make it work. Then I searched "bearing rebuilding" and I found a company in PA that can maybe rebuild my current bearings for 1/4-1/2 the cost of new. I am just curios if anyone has ever heard or seen bearing rebuilding, quality etc? When the weather improves I think all four wheel bearings and races will get send to PA for a quote. They inspect for free so all I will be out is time and shipping costs. Thoughts?

 

What shape are your bearings in? Is the company Scheerer? I think their claim to cost 1/4 - 1/2 is likely based on bearings that cost 100's if not 1000's of dollars each.

I wonder if Scheerer could open up the 5 1/2 bearings to 5 5/8?

 

Have you checked with these folks for unusual bearings? It has been 25 years but they were extremely helpful. BTW, I dealt with the Orlando, FL store.

https://www.motionindustries.com/pro...alogSearch.jsp

 

I have only taken the pass side apart and they are to bad just to clean and re-grease. I have talked to Scheerer.....no luck with replacements and iirc they said they dont rebuild bearings that small. Also no luck with Motion. The company I contacted was Bearing Service Company of Pennsylvania. They said they could rebuild a small 5 5/8 ID roller bearing. Just need to ship them and get a quote. From what I read they resurface the race and install bigger rollers in the bearing. Then manage to reinstall the cage somehow? Ebay has the Timken bearing 73562 for $4500-5900 each. The race is 73875 and starts at $363. Now you know the reason for the question. And thats x 4!

I also want to be fair to Chuck. When I contacted him he quoted me 2K for all four bearings and four races which was a swingin good deal compared to the other prices I have seen, I just didn't and still don't have the 2K laying around for bearings. The rebuild will probably be option #2 if Chuck no longer has access to these beasts @ $2000. The Coleman stub also takes upper and lower rollers. I didn't even get that far but that will also add 4 more bearings and races to the cost of the rebuild. Option 3 will be to leave it sit!

 

How much will you be driving this truck? Low speed/highway?

 

I am sure it will be driven very very little. My 60 runs great and everything works and it probably hasn't seen 10,000 miles in 20 years. Now that you ask the question I wonder if I could get by with a cleaning and repack?

 

Unless the race is spalled or the rollers have chunks missing, that's what I'd do. Although i did see some bearings on Amazon for only $2700 each....

Can you post a pic or two?

 

What does the damage/wear look like?
Are the bearings making noise?

If their not making noise,clean and repack if your not going to drive it much or only going low speed.

Thats a huge cost!

 

It boggles my mind that a simple roller bearing could cost that much!
If you could find out what application they were commonly used for( tractor, road grader, etc) you might be able to find some good used ones.

I agree, if they are not totally wasted, I'd reuse what you have.

 

The races have hairline cracks and the cage is pretty loose on the bearing. Pretty loose is probably an understatement. From what I read about these bearings they were/are used in aviation/aviation engines-transmission. I assume that is why the high price. Plus they carry a crazy load. 10,000 axial load or some such thing. Maybe radial load.....but its a bunch. Thanks for all the input, it might just make more sense to clean and repack with a high quality grease.

 

If these are used in aviation and you could find out the application, that could be your source for good used bearings. It does not take much metal on the magnet in an aviation gearbox to mandate an overhaul.
Edit: A quick search revealed quite a few rebuild facilities. I would suspect the problem would be getting someone at such facility who would listen to your requests.

 

Well.....I talked to a guy at one of the big worldwide bearing outlets and he suggested I contact Timken for the purpose of checking on other uses. It seems Timken has a pretty good idea what bearings go to what. Timken has NO APPLICATION for the 73562 or 73551. NONE! Maybe some day I am bored I will call around to aviation eng/trans rebuilders but that will wait for a rainy day. Thanks for the opinions.......plenty of projects will come before the Coleman so now I need to stop thinking about these bearings. A engine swap in a 63 F250 and getting back to the F2 MH will take my mind off of them.

 

I hurt for you Mark on the Coleman. It was gonna be me. Is the '63 gonna be getting a 460? Stu

 

Hey Stu, I remember the day I told you Chuck could get them for me for the bargain price of 2K and I passed. I thought I could hear you thinking "you better buy those d#%n things! It will all work out someday I suppose. The 460 is sitting next to the gutted 63. Most of my spare time has been spent trying to get some winter toys to run good. We just got that sorted out so now we are looking to "test" fit the BB ford and C6. If we cant get it set back far enough due to the t-case I dont know what we will do. If we slide the t-case back we will be looking at 2 new driveshafts. If we have to move it forward we will run into radiator issues. I have my fingers crossed that we can use 1 u-joint from trans yoke to t-case and use the "slip" of the trans yoke to take the place of what would have been the short shaft. I'm sure you will get pics when we get that monster hoisted in there.

 

Look forward to hearing it again. We can save the back story for later rather than hijack here. Stu