A40 front wheel bearings

[Greg Wildhaber]

I have a 1951 A40 Devon and wish to replace the front wheel bearings.  The original bearings are ball bearing design with tapered outer races.  Apparently these outer races are designed for ease of hub removal for repacking the bearings with grease.

Does anyone have experience with replacing these bearings with new bearings of the design with no taper to the outer race?  In other words, these bearings must be pressed on as one piece.

[MikeN]

I’m surprised they are tapered. They should be  angular contact ball bearings shouldn’t they? As fitted to many cars of this age to take up the side forces encountered in car wheels.  Are you planning on replacing them with common deep groove ball bearings? I don’t think ordinary DG ball bearings would be suitable for a car wheel application. You can use them in motorbikes because the forces act in a different direction when cornering. BTW, I replaced the wheel bearings on my A40 last year (simple job) . It suddenly became a lot quieter in the cab!

[Greg Wildhaber]

Mike, I sure agree with you that the deep groove ball bearings are not suitable for front wheels.  The original angular contact ball bearings in my A40 are not tapered; just the outside race is tapered.  I can’t find those angular contact ball bearings used as original equipment.  Where did you find the replacement bearings?

I have pictures of the original bearings with the numbers on them.

Greg

[MikeN]

Hello Greg, I obtained mine from the club new spares scheme. Now sadly no longer extant. Have a look on the “simply bearings” website. Look at “all bearings” then angular contact bearings. Enter the dimensions. They have a vast selection of products.

[Author]

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