[DeTomaso] Fw:  Tapered Bearing problems

Göran Malmberg hemipanter at hemipanter.se
Sun Dec 28 17:04:42 EST 2008


In my own conversion I am using an inner tube for the inner bearing races
that the axle is running inside. this makes it impossible for water to get in
to the bearing area wia the axle. How about the Quella conversion 
compared to the stock in this regards?
I agree to what you say about that the stock bearing works, but I did my
conversion to see if I could come up with some taper style that also worked.
And, that was very easely demounted. My axle is just to slide out of the
uppright, which is great if one like to change rotors.
It looks like I am using a similar bad seal version as you talk about. 
However, this selected inner race is having a quite large area to seal against.
There are drawings on my site.
I have run this setup for some 4 years now and 5000 miles. Not very much
rain then, but e few VERY healthy ones. 
I am awhare of what could become a problem, but I am the onlyone using
my construction and I can handle it I think.
Goran



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: JDeRyke at aol.com 
  To: hemipanter at hemipanter.se ; detomaso at realbig.com 
  Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 8:43 PM
  Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Fw:  Tapered Bearing problems


  In a message dated 12/28/08 4:06:28 AM, hemipanter at hemipanter.se writes:


    Are there any drawings of the set up around to take a look at? In the case of original bearings it is common for water to find its way in between the bearings and rust the distancer stuck to the axle.


  The design of this conversion has the front seal laying against a flat surface (the front of the inner bearing race), while the seal itself was designed to envelope a shaft or tube. So only a very slight amount of force flips the seal's lip back and lets water in. It's simply the wrong seal for this collection of parts, and several engineers have commented over the years that 'that seal just can't work that way'. They're right. Over the years, I've heard from nearly a dozen owners who lost tapered bearings to water intrusion.
  In my tapered roller conversion, I used much the same seal except I made a short tubular spacer between the stub axle flange and the front bearing, so the seal actually has something to envelope. With this simple but expensive-to-fabricate change, no water leaks and no bearing problems in 15 years of all kinds of weather driving- including going thru the dreaded automated car wash. 
  But its all kind of wasted effort since stock ball bearings work just fine in Pantera carriers- the tapered conversions were done when we didn't understand why ball bearings were failing- and it turned out to NOT be the bearings at fault but undersized factory axle shafts wearing out- now fixed with new factory axles or the popular billet ones, made to the correct size.  My 2¢- J DeRyke


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