Should I replace the bearing races is the question? But it’s complicated.
I’m replacing the brake calipers, hoses, pads and rotors on the front of my heavy duty 1994 B350 Dodge van. The brake rotors are part of the hub, and the assembly is removed after first removing the outer wheel bearing and associated hardware. The rotors/hubs are heavy mo-fos.
I bought new rotors/hubs and they already have races in them. Question: Should I just clean-up and repack my existing bearings and then reinstall them in the (new) races in the fresh replacement rotors/hubs?
The Haynes manual says nothing of replacing the bearings (or the races) during a brake rotor swap. It refers me to section 1 and its general bearing maintenance section. Even that section doesn’t mention race replacement.
So, I’m asking for your opinion on what to do here. I’m tempted to just put the old bearings in the new hubs and their new races. The manual doesn’t mention any cause against doing this. But I’ve historically been instructed to change bearing and race as a set, too. And I’ve mentioned how heavy all this stuff is; I don’t want to do it again any time soon.
Which brings another concern b/c I’m probably not the guy to install any races. Plus… there’s already races in the new hubs/rotors.
You should replace bearings and bearing races at the same time. Don’t put old bearings in an new bearing race, or vice versa.
Thus is because bearings and bearing races wear together. Mixing old and new parts creates uneven contact points, which leads to accelerated wear, noise, and premature failure.
You’ve already (inadvertently?) bought into a half-replaced scenario. So you either go backwards from here and pull the new races out of the new rotors and put the old ones back in without having confused which old rotor / race went on which old axle.
Or you go forwards by removing the old races from the old axles and putting new ones on.
Seems to me forwards is the smarter direction here. It’s the only one available if (good bet) you’ve already lost track of which old part was which.
A main countervailing issue might be if getting the old races off of and new races onto the old axle was vastly more difficult than getting the new races off of and old races onto the new rotors.
A second countervailing issue is how much more life the rest of the vehicle has. If it’s gonna die forever in another 50K miles, you can do the easy thing and mix old and new races/bearings. They’ll be noisy & waiting to fail at 50K miles, but at least you’ll have avoided some vexation back in 2026.
OTOH, if you hope to make the vehicle last a good distance forward from here, that’s no solution at all.
Bottom line:
Everything is a tradeoff. Which will it be: more work now, more work later, or there is no later?
Thanks for the responses, fellahs. @robby has shared the advice of the sages. Advice that I’ve had etched into my memory over the years. What gave me pause in follwing this path was that the new hubs already had the races in them. Much like an invitation to “aw, c/mon… just use your old bearings here!”
I’d be delighted to get another 10 thousand miles out of this baby. She’s got 360,000 miles on her now, and I want to take good care of her.
I found a local shop who turns rotors. I’m going that route first, and will follow up from there. Thanks again.
I’d say this (reading hassle for heavy) is reason enough. Even if the expected wear on a given component isn’t quite used up, it must be nearing EOL. The pain of install will never be less than now.
If it was pads after a full rotor job or, I dunno, an old but intact upper radiator hose after a new thermostat, the option to defer is more attractive since they’re easily replaced later.
Is that to say you’re returning the new rotors/hubs/races unused and just turning the old ones so you can reuse the old races on them? Nothing terrible about that decision, provided again you have and will keep straight which rotors came off which axle.
Assuming you were not already having bearing noises, evidence of failed grease seals, etc., this sounds like the cheap and easy way to push the problem down the road another bunch of miles.
I took the rotors to have them turned (yes, very few shops do this these days), and the machinist required that I remove the seals, bearing and races before he could hook them to their machine. So, at this point, I was no further ahead and was back to replacing my races.
I asked the machinist what he would do in my situation, and he said he’d buy new rotor/hub units, new inner and outer bearings, and dust seals. He said he works with many company accounts, and that’s what they do when the rotors and hubs are one unit. He went on to remark, “the races are already in there.” Against the advice of the ages, I went with his recommendation.
These parts are on order, and I’ll pick them up after 16:00. As to where I stand now, I’ll put new bearings into the new rotors that already have races. The bearings were not giving me any concern, but as @jnglmassiv mentioned, it’s surely wise to replace them.
As I held my nose and signed up for using the misfit races, it didn’t feel right. When the wrong parts showed up, I had the opportunity for pause and perspective. Now this project has escalated from a simple brake pad replacement and system inspection to my fully re-fitting the existing wheel hubs with new races, bearings, and brake rotors. The van remains up on blocks while I wait for the new wheel studs to arrive on Monday; there’s still a few pages left unturned here.
