The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Front wheel inner bearing for '49 GMC

The front wheel inner bearings for my truck are B52 (Timken or Bower). This is an angular contact ball bearing, am I correct? That is, cup, cone and a cage with the balls. My truck had in one side the B52 (actual bearing stampings: cone number 909552 and cup number 909602, these numbers appear as the part number in the Master Parts Book) and on the other side a tapered roller bearing with numbers LM 48519/48541 (cone/cup). It seems like a good idea to replace the ball bearing with the tapered roller. The problem is the following:
Locally I couldn't find the B52 (also the B01 outer front wheel bearing, R1502EL rear wheel bearings and National 6818 oil seal). They told me they were to old, duuuh! Any way, tried to look for the LM48541 and didn't had any luck either. Tried to look in the internet, SKF, NTN, Timken and none carries the mentioned bearing. Is that a specialty bearing that I can't find it? Is it really a good idea to change from ball to roller?

numbers I can get from my local NAPA:

outer - Chicago Rawhide B67 [orig B01] / inner - SKF B52
or NAPA outer - PGBP B67 / inner - PGBP B52
front grease seal [inner] - CR 18772 [NAPA 49412]

if you can order off the net, try Rock Auto

I don't think the roller bearings are an advantage, some folks think they're better but these trucks have done fine with the ball bearings for many decades

Bill

Thanks squeeze, I actually bought all the bearing in RockAuto yesterday.