ceramic bearings

[Jeff Lee]

They don't cost $17,000 for a passenger car. Indy or F1 cars are another breed of car!
Call Jack & get a quote.

[Mark Yacavone]

Might as well get them.
Space -age, exotic, composite, non OEM type parts are legal in Stock now.

[Pvt Parts]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lee

They don't cost $17,000 for a passenger car. Indy or F1 cars are another breed of car!
Call Jack & get a quote.

Not really. Just a different design. The same technology that applies to those cars applies to these cars as well. Take your pick.... carbon fiber, titanium, ceramics, aerodynamics, lubricants, fluid dynamics, and on and on. Just like carbon fiber brakes. I don't know what they cost now but I bought them when they were $3,300.00. Money well spent. I had a titanium bell housing in SS back in 1989 before they were ruled out.

Ceramic bearings are relatively old technology. Back in the '80's a friend of mine worked at shop that build small turbine power plants for the US Military similar to the ones used in cruise missiles. He put me onto them back then. If you want the latest and greatest, the lightest and fastest, start looking at F1, IRL, NASCAR, Military and Space technology. By the time most of the Sportsman racers find out about it, it's old news.

[ShadowLands]

Rear axle bearings from Performance Bearings are just over $210 each. Pinion assemblies range from $877 to just under $1K. Carrier bearings around $600 for the set. I got a quote for doing angular contact bearings for the front hubs (Mustang II stuff) at $550 per set.

For the class I'm building this car for I'm thinking it is well worth the cost.

[daninline]

used to inline speedskate in the early 90's and one kid got them and they made a lot of noise but dam he would just roll away from everyone. then they sold them to everyone they owned a shop

[eddie c]

If you could only afford one set of ceramic bearings, which set would give
you the biggest advantage? ed

[Jeff Lee]

My GUESS would be rear end. I have a Dana 60 with all MW parts. I'm about to get the Performance bearings package for the entire rear. I just need the shop to narrow the axle tubes, put new ends on it and get final measurements so I can get the new axles ordered. Previous axles were MW 40 spline with 11/16" rifle bore. New axles will be MW 40 spline with 1 1/16" rifle bore and 300M material. I'm also changing from 5:13 ratio to 5.86 ratio. Both the old and new ring gear are back-cut. The R&P will be coated (see last paragraph).
I'll take a measurement of torque to rotate the pinion before and after and post the results here. I'm not sure how or if I should measure torque at the axle? Don't expect this next week, this shop is slower than molasses! But we had a long talk yesterday and he's made a commitment to get the chassis & engine done by the end of this year. I'll believe it when I see it but I'm making a big push. I will push real hard to get the Dana up and ready to run. That also involves setting the engine / trans in the car with new motor plates to determine positioning of the Dana and axle size left & right. I'm not sure what MW's lead time is on these 300M axles. So just pushing for the rear-end to be completed will get the chassis well on the way to completion.

FYI - Same shop has had a hand in a customers vintage 4-cylinder road race car. After using a propriety coating on all bearings and bushings from front to rear (spindles, trans, rear), the car reduced lap times by 8 seconds. That's huge. He also believes that true ceramic bearings would be better yet.

[Chris Barnes]

I know that top of the line professional bicycles use ceramic bearings. The general consensus is that they are worth it if you must keep up with the Joneses with a big budget but that there are generally a few better ways to spend money for regular folks.

Chris Barnes
Wagons of Steel
Stock 6621

[Pvt Parts]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lee

My GUESS would be rear end. I have a Dana 60 with all MW parts. I'm about to get the Performance bearings package for the entire rear. I just need the shop to narrow the axle tubes, put new ends on it and get final measurements so I can get the new axles ordered. Previous axles were MW 40 spline with 11/16" rifle bore. New axles will be MW 40 spline with 1 1/16" rifle bore and 300M material. I'm also changing from 5:13 ratio to 5.86 ratio. Both the old and new ring gear are back-cut. The R&P will be coated (see last paragraph).
I'll take a measurement of torque to rotate the pinion before and after and post the results here. I'm not sure how or if I should measure torque at the axle? Don't expect this next week, this shop is slower than molasses! But we had a long talk yesterday and he's made a commitment to get the chassis & engine done by the end of this year. I'll believe it when I see it but I'm making a big push. I will push real hard to get the Dana up and ready to run. That also involves setting the engine / trans in the car with new motor plates to determine positioning of the Dana and axle size left & right. I'm not sure what MW's lead time is on these 300M axles. So just pushing for the rear-end to be completed will get the chassis well on the way to completion.

FYI - Same shop has had a hand in a customers vintage 4-cylinder road race car. After using a propriety coating on all bearings and bushings from front to rear (spindles, trans, rear), the car reduced lap times by 8 seconds. That's huge. He also believes that true ceramic bearings would be better yet.

If you are spending that much money, why didn't you just put a new 9" under the car with an alum center.

[Damn Yankee]

Not trying to split hairs, but is there any measurable performance advantage between a ceramic angular contact bearing for the front spindle's vs a full roller ceramic bearing ?

Also is there any data showing where the angular contact bearing is less safe than a full roller bearing when upgrading to ceramics ?

I ask because the brake manufacture we are working with is giving us fits and telling us the angular ceramic bearing is unsafe with our particular spindles (1991 Mustang). I have a hard time believing this when I know there are stockers and super stockers out there in excess of 3500lbs using this very bearing. Our race weight will be 3150lbs.