Reply to "wheel bearings"

I did that conversion beginning late in the previous year, so in the 6+ years from late '97 to mid-2003, obviously something changed in the catalogues.I got mine at that date from U.S. Bearings & Drives in San Jose CA, across the counter, for a total of $134.91, which I imagine also has changed a bit... I still have the invoice and the empty boxes from the bearings I used, and they definitely say '354-X, 1-x-30308 and 1-x-30308y'. Normally a modifier such as the "X"s denote a minor design change inside the assembly so they may not be significant. As for the seal I had to thin, at that time I just couldn't find one the correct size but the thinning was simple using a small lathe, so thats what I used. Tell your counterman what you think you need and he should be able to hand you something that will work. What you also could do is acquire a bunch of bearing catalogues and start looking thru, as their dimensions are all given. Timkin, Bearings Inc, Bruening, Fafnir, National Seal and others all have catalogues and parts that interchange.And please remember that this conversion is a job for an expert machinest with a milling machine, a lathe and lots of tooling for both, and that the conversion itself is really not required if stub axles of the proper size and interrference-fit are used with ball bearings (new billet axles, NOT new-stock axles). As I said in the article, there are commercial conversions available that are not done correctly IMHO, so part of the reason I did this was to see if it was even possible to do properly. I found that, to date, it is possible- mine are still fine & unrusted, & I've since seen another conversion that uses identical components, but it ain't easy.