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I knew the sound came from the right hand side, so, after I had changed out 3 of the 4 possible wheel bearings, it appeared to the most difficult to reach, 4th one... as usual

This was what was making the whining noise:

Yikes. How long has that bearing been in there? Consequences of wider tires?

Thats called "brinneling" (sp). Is that a rear wheel bearing? (a) It can sometimes be caused by grease failure (not the case here as there are no overheating marks) (b) bearing preload too tight...bet that is the case here (c) bearing preload too loose (which will also be noted by elliptical wear similar to the wear you get from a race installed crooked).

You can also get this when the hardening is not properly done on the race.

Question: what did the bearing itself look like?

What can happen is that when either the bearing or the race is way under hardened....a single hard jar (like from hitting a bump)...or a single weak spot in the hardening of the surface can start an erosion.

At one point in time I had this happen a few times on the rear bearings. I got rid of the problem when I started getting relly picky about bearing quality....and I went to a grease with a 500+ drop point....and installed a grease fitting right on teh bottom of the trailing arm.

The biggest change came from not packing the trailing arm like the book suggests....which sucks. I actually overpack the rear bearings. You need to have most of the spare space inside of teh trailing arm bearing area full of grease around the spacer and axle....or the grease will forced out of the bearing by rotational force and pressure. Without having extra grease inside of the chamber there is nothing to back up the grease that squeezes out of the bearing. What little grease that is left is very solid in the winter until thing heat up.....and that is when the worst wear starts.

Of course you do not want to pack it so full that when the grease expands from heat it pushes past the seals.....but you need roughly 3 times what the haynes manual suggests.
Also...get a good inch pound torque wrench to adjust bearing play with. Ray

Bill K. wrote:Yikes. How long has that bearing been in there? Consequences of wider tires?

It made sounds for a few weeks now. Its amazing how long you can keep driving with it with these noises. I know, as the outer bearing race looked about the same when I needed to change that too after I just bought the car. Surpisingly (or maybe just not) it was the same rear wheel...

I suspect this came bacause the car had not been used for 7 years when I bought it, which is now about 40 K miles back, but then again, maybe it had nothing to do with that.

Its NOT the consequence of wider tires. Never believe that B*llsh*t!

Hey Ray, yes its a rear - inner- bearing. he one that needs the drive shafts with CV's and all to be removed... The bearing itself looked immaculate! Just like last time when the other race (but the outer one) at the same wheel went bad, it looked more or less exactly like this..

Luckily I had bought the parts car and could use his/her bearings

Could you tell us the brand on the bearing? There were a few small quality issues years back. Generally I have found only three brands that make this bearing. There was SKF...and those are really hard to find at all. There was FAG...superb quality (I think they are Fafnir now) and there was Timkin.
Timkin is known to be generally very good quality...but I did fond some hardening issues with some off and on.
If the bearing is pristine...it may have been a race hardening issue.

But...I have found that the bearing rollers can "look" pristine...but you then find that the cage is a little loose. The cage is generally softer material.

Most of the Timkin bearings of this part # were made at Timkins factory in France.
At one point in time I was finding Races...being sold separate from the bearings under the brand name CR....which is really just a conglomerate bearing dealer. You would open the box and find timkin or FAG inside.

I would not risk that the bearing is pristine...because you really cannot see the condition of the inner race.

You can...on known excellent bearings just buy a new outer race. But...ou can't use a good used race with any other bearing except that which it was brokin in with.

For a couple years when I found race isues like you have...I went to the junkyards and rescued pristine German bearings and races....cleaned them and I have them stored wired together in transmission fluid . They are moticably smoother than some of the new bearings.

I find better life by packing better than the books say you should.

The other issue I have found also...is that previous owners get in a hurry and do not install the inner race 100% straight.

Last issue. If you remove the bearing cover clamping the race from the outer bearing....the one on the brake side...you sometimes find a tolerance issue...meaning the race does not fit tight in the bore. I am not sure oif this is an issue with te hearing bore getting out of tolerance or the bearing races being out of tolerance. Ray

Both races that went sour were FAG.

The other car had Timken bearing and on the front were SKF.

Thanks for the tip on the packaging with more grease