Originally Posted By: bigbadswingdaddy

With all bearings being made in China


In my personal experience, this is far from true.



Quote:

Most parts houses no longer carry our obsolete bearings.


I've had good luck finding really obsolete stuff through NAPA, CarQuest and Federated. Places like O'Reilly, AutoZone and Pep Boys are pretty good for newer stuff, but you have to go to the pros for the more oddball parts.







Sam,
I know you are not trying to be argumenitive. However, After going through a terrible ordeal of losing a tapered roller bearing on a road trip, I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH YOU!

The NAPA I broke down closest to had one BCA outer ball bearing in stock, and I was able to pick it up, install it and get on my way. The bearing I got was the last one they would ever carry. I kind of lucked out on that. By the way do you know what happens when you use a roller bearing inner, and a ball bearing outer on an old truck? I do! You end up having a catastopic falure in which the spindle, hub, and bearings all get fried, forcing you to source a new front axle.

My [questioned] point from above... get the best bearings you can. There is nothing aybody can or will ever say that will ever convince me Chinese made bearings are equal in quality to American made bearings. They can't be, the metalurgy is all wrong.

When it comes to the front bearings for our 1/2 ton trucks, the roller bearings are one off bearings that are made in China. The first batch of these bearings were made in Japan. The Japanese bearings are far superior to the Chinese bearings. You can find the Chinese roller bearings on sale for $69.95 on occasion, although the kit usually costs around $130. You can also source the MBS japanese roller bearings from a local bearing house for upwards of $250 for the set. I understand that more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better quality. I have not had any problems with the MBs bearings. The chinese roller bearings wore prematurely and left me stuck on the side of the road on numerous occasions. Again I wore out 2 complete sets of the Chinese roller bearings in less than 30,000 miles of driving.

I'm a firm believer in the old addage... Good stuff ain't cheap, and Cheap stuff ain't good!