Ball bearings?

[tony1966]

I have a set of spoked wheels I wanted to put on the car to replace the aluminum ones on it.  I see they have ball bearings, but my current ones use tapered rollers.  Is there any concerns on using ball bearings instead of tapered?  They seem delicate, but it is FED, so maybe its OK for the loads it'll see.

It would be nice to get rid of the tapered rollers, as they leak grease out of the caps and make a mess, but I don't want to find out the hard way that ball bearing are not the way to go.

Thanks!
Tony

[dreracecar]

same front wheel ball bearings since 2000  460# on the nose, 200mph passes
no need to worry about it,   the trick is to shim or trim the backside of the nut for proper pre-load, not too tight and not too loose. Wrap some solder around the spoke so the wheel is imbalenced.  spin the wheel, the wheel should not JERK to a stop, it should slowly come to a stop where the weight goes past bottom and reverse to bottom

[JrFuel Hayden]

Good advice, Bruce, but Tony make sure you have Anglia spindles, if early Ford spindles the hubs might be set-up for tapered bearings.
Hayden Wheels uses sealed ball bearings because of less rolling resistance, lighter weight, and cost. I have sold ball bearing Hayden wheels to A/F cars and they run up to 230 mph, with no problem.
Another thing is we have used nylock nuts on the spindles for 20 years, because, like Bruce pointed out,  the castle nut a lot of times does not line-up with the cotter pin hole with out it being too tight or too loose. The nylock, or locking nut you can adjust it to a perfect position, a little movement back and forth on the spindle. 

Cheers, Jon, 805-444-4489, cell

[ricardo1967]

Good advice, Bruce, but Tony make sure you have Anglia spindles, if early Ford spindles the hubs might be set-up for tapered bearings.
Hayden Wheels uses sealed ball bearings because of less rolling resistance, lighter weight, and cost. I have sold ball bearing Hayden wheels to A/F cars and they run up to 230 mph, with no problem.
Another thing is we have used nylock nuts on the spindles for 20 years, because, like Bruce pointed out,  the castle nut a lot of times does not line-up with the cotter pin hole with out it being too tight or too loose. The nylock, or locking nut you can adjust it to a perfect position, a little movement back and forth on the spindle. 

Cheers, Jon, 805-444-4489, cell

Great input as always Jon... question about nylock nuts.... it's one time use only, right?

[JrFuel Hayden]

No , we have been using our all metal locking nut for 20 years, al tho we did get new ones last year, not because they were not working only because it just seemed like it was time.
Using , adusting the crimped nut alows me to adjust it so the wheel turns so free, some racers ask if we are using ceramic bearings.
Cheers,

[dreracecar]

Be real careful on which all metal lock nut you use--- there is the split type and the crimped type. The split type has lines and the lock portion is swedged together and the "fingers" expand to create the lock. The crimped type , they just compress the top to deform the hole into a tri-angle, and by using those type , damages the threads of the part/bolt you are using them on

[tony1966]

Thanks for the info, guys.  I have Anglia spindles, and castle nuts with cotter pins.  I see if i can round up some proper lock nuts from McMaster, if i don't find ones that i like, i just order up some arbor shims and shim the castle nuts.

Thanks again!

Tony