I still have not sold my truck, which needs to be gone before I buy my MB Diesel . . . this past week on the way home from church my wife says "what is that clunk?"

So today I get home from work early and go out after lunch and have a look at my GMC, the wheel bearing is loose, so I pull it out and clean it up and the race is PLASTIC! I sure hope MB doesn't do things like that! (yes it does has 126k on it)



It has been awhile since I have played with wheel bearings, but when I pulled the cotter pin the nut was loose, I could turn it in about 1/4 turn with my fingers! It looked OK, so after I cleaned it out, I repacked it with grease, and put it back in! Should be OK, I just don't remember about the deal if it is too loose, can I just tighten it up, how long do you think it will last?

I also discovered my "clunk", it was one end of of my anti sway bar flopping around . . . sorry it's kinda fuzzy . .


So at least with these things fixed, I'll feel better about selling it . . .

Be sure to change the track arms, too.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

I got some cheap chinese ones that used sheet metal.

__________________
http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

But . . . it's a GMC, not a Ford Mustang . . .

I believe that the sole porpose of the race is to hold the roller bearings in place, but I was surprised to see white when I cleaned off the grease . . . then realized they were plastic!

What you're calling a "race" is what I would call a "cage".

The plastic is most likely Ultra High Molecular Weight, high temperature and MoS impregnated plastic which may last longer than the older style stamped steel cages. I'm sure that engineers take into consideration that the wear of the steel cage material would add hard abrasive material to the grease whereas wear of the plastic would not add hard abrasive and may actually add modifiers that would ultimately help grease performance.

Sounds like the bearings and the races where in good shape. Good luck!

From the looks of that suspension you have a lot more surprises to come. Looks like rust, dirt and crud everywhere.

I don't see any problem with the plastic "cages". However I would never just look at a bearing and based on it being loose or tight, "just tighten it up". If the races are clean and are not damaged, I see no reason not to clean/re-pack and put those bearings right back in there.

Old Chevy's, Ford's and Dodge's are great. I have always had at least 1 or 2 at a time. Nothing like an old truck.

__________________
AJ

1985 300D (SOLD)

It is not the race you are referring to, it is the cage. The race is the part pressed into your rotor that the rollers contact. The plastic cage is typical, nothing to worry about.

The race is a press fit in the rotor, check and make sure it is not loose.

The axle nut should be tightened firmly while rotating the wheel to seat the bearing, then backed off to zero torque and tighened just until it is snug and the cotter pin hole lines up. Do not overtighten!! It should be slightly more than finger tight.

You need sway bar link kits to fix the sway bar noise. The kit will come with the rubber insulators and hardware, very easy to install and not expensive either.

Humorous remarks aside, there are probably significant advantages to using an appropriate plastic for the cage of a tapered roller bearing, including weight, cost, and manufacturing tolerances.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

YES, your right, I told you it was a while since I had played with bearings . . .

So I have a plastic cage . . . and my truck is not really that old, just turned 10 this month . . .

Yes that is how I adjusted the bearing . . .

$13 from napa, be here in the morning . . .

Mostly just crud, although the truck started out in MI, then went to CO, I bought it in VT 5 years ago, moved to AZ 1.5 years ago, so yeah there is a little rust, but just surface rust . . . It's a truck, and I drive it like one, we have lots of dirt/gravel roads around here too, when I clean it I only polish the shiny top part! I don't even spray the hose under there anymore since I don't have to worry about salt!

I did clean them, (removed all grease) and looked inside the cage to see the roller bearings, all surfaces are smooth, and not pitted, same with the race . . .

I agree...

I did rotor replacement job a few days ago and re-packed my bearings. I found 3 of the bearings were Japanese and one was a German FAG brand. NO rude comments please...

Anyway, after I cleaned the bearings and was re-packing them... Wow! The Jap. bearings cages were actually cutting into the palm of my hand! Every piece of that POS Jap. bearing was sharp and actually hurt my hand. The FAG German bearings cage was very smooth and easy to pack by comparison.

It seems to me that a sharp cage + improper torque or installation would cause premature wear or failure. Or at least fill the grease full of metallic crud that should not be there. A finely machined metal cage OR a plastic cage would have less chance of introducing crud into the grease and/or cause a premature failure (maybe, I am not an engineer).

This probably does not mean anything. But, just something I noticed the other day. I have worked as an aircraft mechanic for over 15 years as a mechanic and as a QA inspector. So, I always have a watchful eye out for things like this.

__________________
AJ

1985 300D (SOLD)

Bearings can come with at least three types of cages, stamped steel, brass or plastic. The big advantage of plastic cages is that they won't microweld to the balls at very high speed. Brass cages are good for this too. Steel cages can fail in this way if lubrication is sparse and the surface speeds are too high. Nothing wrong with plastic cages in this application in my opinion. Cheers Dan

__________________
It's always something simple
91 300D 603.960 (from japan) 194K
92 Toyota Diesel Landcruiser HDJ81-t 116K
02 Golf TDI new head courtesy of PO
87 300D
97 BMW 525 TDS Wagon 5spd
bunch of Onan and other diesel generators