Front Wheel Bearings

[tarcoleo 119]

On my "C" tractors, have had cause to want heavier duty front wheel bearings and

will be installing roller bearings on order at-

http://www.stenspartsdirect.com/product_info.php?cPath=74_379_1304&products_id=2553

Anyone try these units? Also, are cotter pins the best solution for securing wheels to axles?

Tom in a little coastal village in The Ocean State

[rmaynard 14,952]

The problems that I see are that 1. the bearing may be so deep that they will block your zerk hole; and 2. you will have your spindle riding directly on the roller bearings. Unless the spindle is perfectly true, with no wear, you are going to wear something out very quickly.

Personally, I would go with a high quality set of original OEM type bearings. With proper maintenance, I've never seen a set wear out. Even tractors designed for FEL's such as the C-195 and the D-Series with heavy-duty spindles, still use the enclosed ball bearings.

Just my worth.

[hbrooks49 12]

After a front wheel fell off when mowing (split ring type) I replaced both sides with hi quality split locking collars. They should not come off but are easily released.

[tarcoleo 119]

Thanks gentlemen,

I'm thinking that 1) the load on the front wheels is light enough and 2) that the roller bearings

spread the load over a sufficiently large area of the axle--so that wear should not be significant

if there is adequate lubrication. Looks like there will be. The split locking collar is a great idea.

Will post if this doesn't work out. Thanks again.

[roscoemi 245]

Bought a set of spindles off a wh that was smaller than my C-121 that had a bolt in the end, model unknown. The rings on one of mine had come off twice in 15 feet in my yard and had to go. No more problems.

[SousaKerry 500]

Do not use roller bearings on non hardened shafts, trust me I learned this lesson the hard way when I engineered a conveyor transmission system early in my career. The shafts wore through in less then 2 months of operation. Most bearing manufacturers recommend a hardness of 58-60Rc for roller bearings, that's about as hard as a good file.

[tarcoleo 119]

Thanks Sous***

I do appreciate your experience with the conv system. Here are the differences from the application you discussed- 1) very light load, 2) very low rpm's. 3) axles exposed to rollers over relatively large areas. It might be preferable if the axles were hardened (then prone to brittle failure) or there were inner races on these bearing units. Not the case, anyway, I hope I'm right. But if I'm wrong, I'll find out before the situation goes too far.

[The Toolman 22]

JD garden tractors have roller or ball brgs in the front wheels, but the brg has its own inner an outer race an it slides over the 1" frt spindle of the machine. So it really doesn't need to be hardened. I used the frt wheels from a junker 214 for my sulky, an thats where I found out that they used regular brgs instead of bushings.

[Tankman 3,515]

Low weight, slow speed, keep 'em greased. Never had a problem (half dozen WH's, and more).

You might like to try Rick at http://www.majesticshardware.com/ . Knowledegeable and usually has OEM bearings, stock.

[tarcoleo 119]

Well guys, this is how it played out. The roller bearings I was considering presented problems I did not anticipate. Without inner races,

it would have been necessary to provide thrust bearings (brass or bronze washers) on the inside and outside of the wheel/bearings. This might

have worked if I wanted to rely on the snap ring to retain the assembly onto the spindle. But I liked the idea from HBrooks above suggesting

the use of a split shaft collar. But spindle length would not allow roller bearings, plus the thrust washers, plus the shaft collars unless I altered

the wheel itself. No way.

Soooooo... went back to the stock ball bearings and shaft collar arrangement and am happy.