The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Steering Mast Bearings - Repop vs NOS?

So, my steering issue was, as suspected, the mast bearing. The inner part with the ball bearings and retainers slipped down the column after the plastic deteriorated. Luckily it stayed in one piece and was stopped by the screws holding the column shifter collar in place.

My question is... Repop mast bearing or NOS? Anyone use either and have any thoughts on the matter?
Usually I'd say buy American NOS over the Chinese repop but in this case I'm wondering about the 60yr old plastic and the cloth covered wiring on the NOS piece vs the overall quality of the repop piece?
I called American Classic and they pretty much just said that it's personal preference and $20 less for the repop. I believe some of the import stuff can be just as good but I can't actually see one to get an idea.


This page says the new (repop) ones are well made. ...but given the choice waddya do?
http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/horn/wirereplacement.html

Take your old bearing to the local parts store and see if they can cross reference it to one they have or can order. Usually with no shipping charges. Moat have a limited warrantee for as long as you own your vehicle......which is forever,right! I believe if you can get it locally it will be of better quality than some of the ones that are made "just for the hobby" or as cheap as it can be made to satisfy some vendor.
I've actually did this myself and know it works....sometime.

In the end it may be an overseas repop but I spend my money LOCALLY when I can.
Good luck.

So far what I've found is that it's not a very common part as it is a series of cups, a plastic isolator and soldered horn wire. The balls, race and all the cups in mine are actually fine it's the plastic between the bearing assembly and outer cup that disintegrated. The spring then pushed the bearing assembly out of the main cup and down the column. I'm lucky it didn't separate and spill the balls.

Mostly I'm just worried the plastic in the NOS piece might be brittle and the quality of the repop is super cheap.

You can see how mine broke, pushed through and how I extracted the pieces.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8318/8055309451_4238368968_c.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8173/8055309988_8d1dbc36e9_c.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8175/8055309711_5643a1d9b1_c.jpg

Honestly, I'm probably putting too much thought into this and I should just buy one of the two and be done.

After much discussion with a service rep at Classic Parts I ordered the repop version of the mast bearing. ...but to make up for the money saved, I added a new steering wheel to the order.

From the way the rep described it, the repop is made of identical materials and, other than the NOS version looking like it sat on a shelf for +/-60yrs, he can't see any difference.

Also, Classic Parts is in KC, MO and I'm in St.L so it's local-ish and he said just to call them if I had any issues down the road.

For what it's worth, I got the repop mast bearing. There is absolutely no difference. Cloth covered section on the wiring and all.

The difference I see between my the one I'm replacing and the new one is the material I thought was hard plastic, isn't. It is rubber or a silicone type material. My old one was just that dried out.
That said, it probably wouldn't be all that hard to repair the old one with some silicone caulk or epoxy.

I'll post pictures comparing the two asap.



Also, even though I am returning it, the repop steering wheels are beautiful! After ordering a black one, I found one at another vendor that is the correct color brown, so I ordered it rather than trying to paint the black one.

Wow. Be careful buying the brown repop steering wheel from the "other vendor" (there's only one vendor who sells it pre-painted). Looks like a 12yr old cleaned the casting seams with a flat razor and painted it without sanding. Finger prints, dust and debris, runs, marks from where it was wrapped before it was dry, etc. The splines on the shaft don't line up at all and my original horn contact pin doesn't fit the hole they have drilled. This isn't the first time I've been let down by this vendor on a rebuilt or unique part. Hopefully this is a fluke and I'm sure they'll make good on it but I don't think I'll be shopping with them again unless it's for a part they don't actually handle other than shipping. Bummer too cause they're local to me and stuff usually arrives super quick.

The black wheel I got from Classic Parts, who is also local to me, is gorgeous, drops right onto the shaft splines snuggly and the horn contact pin drops right in.

Eric, to avoid vendor bashing would you PM me the one who gave you such a crappy one....even though I think I know where it came from...thanks.

No problem!

Well, I just spoke to a super nice woman about the steering wheel and she promised me that she would personally fully inspect and ship me a new wheel today as well as refund the cost of shipping back the poorly constructed wheel.

While we were chatting, she mentioned a batch that had to be rebored because the horn contact pins weren't fitting correctly (one of my problems) and that they only quality check so many of them so this one was probably a fluke.

I'll post an update when I receive the new wheel.