Dana 30 front wheel bearings

They sure are different bearings in my CJ7's D30! They look close, but....

I just replaced my inner and got a bearing at NAPA. The box says BR50 with these numbers: LM102949 and LM102910. One number would be the cage and the other the race.

Mike

The spindle is bigger for the inside one too, I just looked at a spare spindle. The inner bearing slips on easy up to the end, then it press fits the last 3/4" on the spindle.

Mike

"L.W.(Bill) Hughes III" wrote:

On my '81 CJ5, the wheel bearings are different.

I had a spare set to read the numbers from, but I musta installed them ...

I appreciate everyone's input. Think I'm gonna make a bushing at work tomorrow night. I've been researching this all weekend, everything I find lists the inner and outer bearings as the same. Gonna bore a piece of pre-heat-treated 4130, tap the race into it, then turn the OD about .002" over the hub bore before cutting it off and pressing it into the hub. That should keep this thin-walled SOB from springing out-of-round.

Happy fourth, everyone. Y'all be safe...

How are you going to make the bearing fit over the spindle? It won't in my Dana 30.

I gave you the correct part numbers for the bearing and race....

Mike

KayakBill wrote:

Shit I didn't even think about the inner race ID or spindle OD... I'll run those numbers thru the guys at NAPA.. Thanks, Mike,,,

we ALL experience brain-farts sometimes...

TIME OUT!

Why don't you take the bearings that you have and simply match them up?

Clearly, the inner and outer bearings are different, the inner is larger. The bearings you have have markings on them that can be used to buy more bearing sets just like what you already have.

I strongly urge you to not modify the parts that you find because they are engineered for a very important job. The changes you are considering can make the bearings out-of-round -- which would be a disaster -- or at least make them weaker -- which can't be a good thing on the front of your truck.

I'm not gonna modify the bearings, Jeff, simply make bushings to press into the front wheel hubs that are bored to press the bearing outer races into. Bushings made out of 4130 would actually make the hubs stronger, as the process of cold-drawing bar-stock produces steel that is inherently stronger than any part produced by the process of casting (like wheel hubs).

By boring the bushing ID to size and tapping the bearing race into it before turning the bushing OD to size, the bearing race will keep the bushing from springing out-of-round before I get it pressed into the wheel hub. Bearing races are hardened to around 60 on the Rockwell scale, and they will NOT deform. (Hit one with a hammer lol... it'll shatter, but I promise it won't bend. Wear a face shield if you try this).

I've been setting-up/programming CNC machining equipment to manufacture parts for the automotive, aircraft, defense industries and every industry you can think of for about 18 years. Latest project was getting a couple of Giddings and Lewis Horizontal Machining Centers (their HMC 170's) to machine Allison's new auto tranny cases for big rigs (tractor/trailors, cement mixers, etc). Allison seems quite happy with the cases they get from Walker Die Casting. And the HMC 170's are quite impressive. The tool magazines hold 100 tools (face mills, end mills, boring heads, drills, taps, reamers, etc.), they execute a tool change in less than 2 seconds, they have a 3,000 IPM rapid-traverse rate, they have 2 pallets that auto-change. Made a fixture on one that holds the tranny vertically, bell-housing down, do all the radial work on it. On the second pallet tranny mounts to the fixture via the (just machined) mounting pads locating on 2 dowell holes we just put in, do all the linear work on ths fixture (main-bearing bore, drive bearing bore, clutch ring grooves, seal bores, etc.). Allison has a tight tolerance from the centerline of the main bores to the pan mounting surface, so this is where I have the machine facing the pan mounting surface and drilling/tapping/reaming bunches of holes on the bottom.

I mounted a 2-foot-long wire brush off a floor-cleaner in a boring-bar holder, machine swipes it over and inside the whole tranny-case last thing, does a good job of de-burring the whole thing. Allison folks were impressed lol.

Been doin this a long time...

Okay then, but why can't you read the numbers stamped on the bearings you have, and buy more stuff with the same numbers?

The numbers are barely legible, and I probably could if I could find a parts supplier that had a master listing for whatever brand bearings these are (only the SKU is stamped into the bearings, not the brand name). O'course, if/when I ever sold this thing, were the new owner ever to replace the front wheel bearings, they'd be going thru this whole thing all over again.

i can understand why parts houses loose track of rarely used part numbers on a 33 year-old jeep. Modifying the wheel hubs to accept the bearings EVERYONE has listed is really not that big of a deal. I simply thought somebody might be able to point me to the right bearings and save me from sacrificing a lunch-hour working on a personal project...

People weld crankshaft journals and then grind them to make strokers, so why not?

Seriously, I think you need to find a more competent parts counter person. It sounds as if your hub has the right bearing in it, or at least one that will work, and all you need is an identical replacement. The person you are talking to now either doesn't have the right catalogs, or doesn't know how to read them.

Earle

Well, as a practical matter, the D30 spindles have not changed very much in those 30 years.

My limited experience in these matters is that NAPA will have the cross reference data. The numbers stamped on the parts will be something like LM1310. I seem to recall they have 2 letters followed by 5 numbers (yes, my example only has 4 numbers). The numbers mean something, even if there is no brand name. If you can make out the numbers stamped, then you can cross reference to something that fits.

I have a bearing distributor in my town that can derive a part number by measuring the various dimensions.

My '81 CJ5 has spindles that came from a Bronco, and the bearings come from the Jeep entry in the bearing catelog. You might try having the store look up the bearings for a later year Jeep and checking to see if those parts fit. I had a set of bearings on my bench for a long time, but recently installed them and tossed the boxes.