The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Need a Diffinitve Answer

OK, I have searched the forum and still am confused! I am working on a 1947 3600, and need front wheel bearings. I'd like to move into "modern" style roller bearings (converting to disc brakes). Question 1: Are these the same size as on a 3100 truck?
Question 2: I have heard of problems with the dust seals not fitting - where is the best place to buy a "kit"? Question 3: Is it "necessary" to convert?
Thanks!

1, No, different bearings than a 1/2 ton
2a, Not sure about dust/grease seals
2b, There were for a short time tapered roller bearing kits for the 3/4 and 1 ton offered by one or a few of the restoration parts vendors. These bearings were non standard size, seemingly made for this one application, the part numbers on the bearings did not cross to anything else available. They were Chinese bearings. Best I can tell no longer available, unless you commission your own production run of special bearings.
3, No, the original type bearings are adequate.

I will simply answer question 3. It is not necessary. I have a 48 3600 with original style wheel bearings, disc brakes, a 292 and T5. It stops and steers just fine.

Jon

What's so great about roller bearings. I don't understand. When I was young I worked in a Hardware Store. We were branded ACE but purchased from others. The Old Timer's there showed me the difference between the Milwaukee power tools and other tool company's. The Milwaukee tools had ball bearings. Why do venders sell kits to swap from ball to roller bearings

A ball bearing works better when there is little to no load pushing sideways on the bearings, a tapered roller bear can support the sideways load better. A tapered roller bearing also has way more surface area in contact to support the loads, ball bearings have very little surface area contact. As for power tools, a ball bearing far better then a bushing.

Ball bearings used for wheel bearings are angular contact ball bearings, they are designed to handle significant side load as well as radial load.

True the "ball bearings" in a shape you think of first are primarily radial.

The original ball type wheel bearinsg were obviously designed or evaluated for the application, and have worked great for 3/4 of a century or better.
Tapered roller bearings are also good.
Lots of modern stuff has gone back to ball type wheel bearings, now they're an assembly of two bearings relatively close together as one unit.

The main reason I've gone to tapered roller in the past was that ball bearings were 8X more money. Not sure if that is still the case. I've only had 1/2T TF. Tapered roller are better bearings. But the better design is not necessary in this case.

3. "Is it necessary to convert?" It's a moot point if they are not available.

Any machinist worthy of the name can adapt tapered roller bearings to hubs intended for ball bearings. Other than a cost and availability advantage in favor of the tapered bearings, I can't see much of a reason to go to the effort and expense to do so. Since very few of our trucks see working conditions approaching what they were designed and built for, "upgrading" to a higher capacity bearing is a fool's mission.
Jerry

I'm guessing they switched from ball bearings to roller bearings is it's a whole lot easier (cheaper) to make perfectly round cylinders (rollers) than perfectly round balls. Years ago, a bearing "expert" on this forum even said if you have them, ball bearings were superior to the rollers.

The roller bearings on these trucks seem to last somewhere past forever. If I find that they are clean and have grease on them, I run them regardless of how old they may be.