Front wheel bearing questions
 

The front wheel bearings went bad on my 1967 C10 pickup the other day and I've been looking for new ones. Just been having a hard time finding good USA made ones. Would anyone know who still makes them in USA or has good quality in general? I've checked posts on here but some are a few years old, and I don't know if anything has changed since.

I have also found a set on Ebay that claim to be USA made, but they say their for a C10 panel truck from 1962-1967. My question to that is, are they the same for pickup and panel and are they interchangeable for those years? If so I'll get them.

Thanks to those who reply
Jack

Re: Front wheel bearing questions
 

I have no experience with the wheel bearings on these GM trucks, but earlier this year I spent a few months researching the front bearings/seals of a '50's Ford truck and found that

1) it's easier to use aftermarket bearing part numbers than factory OEM part numbers.

2) These bearing part numbers were used by several USA made brands for DECADES. Often the exact same number; sometimes one brand would add some type of suffix/prefix to it.

3) Leftover from the days when these old trucks were much more common on roads and were therefore more often serviced by every typical shop, there are MOUNTAINS of these parts still available NOS.

Not gonna lie, it took me a month to find the right deals and negotiate with eBay sellers, but I ended up getting two new sets of USA NOS bearings from eBay at the cost of about 1/2 a set. But again, it took a month of diligent searching and making offers.
Don't be afraid of Japanese Koyo brand either, top notch quality and very commonly used through the 80's and 90's. Today basically everything is China unless you can find Federal Mogul.


One last EDIT: heres a semi recent thread on a similar topic where I chimed in at: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=bearings

Re: Front wheel bearing questions
 

Timken, USA
SKF, Sweden
NSK or Koyo, Japan

All excellent Quality bearings.
Personally, I use american made Timken in my old Truck, whenever possible, but any of these would be fine, There are other quality bearings, but that's my short list.

Re: Front wheel bearing questions
 

Timken or SKF are what I prefer. The numbers stamped on the race and the cone are standardized. If you look up the number in the bearing shown you will get multible brands with the same number and are interchangeable .

Re: Front wheel bearing questions
 

Timken is made all over the planet now. Old article from Practical Machinist

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/f...-china.393375/

Re: Front wheel bearing questions
 

I would never buy a Timken Bearing that wasn't made in the USA (just out of principal)
This is why I stopped buying carhartt and Craftsman.

Re: Front wheel bearing questions
 

I have bought lots of Timken bearings in he past few years for trucks and have not seen one that was made in China yet.

Go see if your local parts store can get the Timken bearings you want. If they show up and are made in China don't buy them?

Re: Front wheel bearing questions
 

Part numbers are:

Inner: LM48510/LM48548 or BR5
Outer: LM11910/LM11949 or BR2

NTN-Bower and RBC are manufactured in the good ol' US of A. Timken makes some here, some in Mexico, and also France and China.