Wheel bearing selection

[petawawarace]

I am building a new set of hubs/uprights for my Car. There is nothing available off the shelf that will allow me to keep the suspension as it is. I’m frugal, and I also own a small CNC shop so making these will not be much of an issue. My question centres around the wheel bearing. Since I am designing this from scratch, I can choose what bearing I use. I would like to use an off the shelf readily available bearing. Double row angular contact, sealed bearing, but what load and RPM should I be looking at? I know my actual wheel RPM is around 2k, but should I be using say a 5k rated bearing or a 10k rated bearing to keep heat down?
For load, does anyone have a reference for static and radial loads? What are the ratings on say the SNR VD late model bearings?

[S Lathrop]

What are you using for a spindle. And if this is an upright for a drive wheel how will you drive that spindle. Once those parts are chosen, the bearings is easy.

The least expensive source for bearings will be recent model passenger cars. I have been working on a project where we went with Honda Civic parts. We can find spindles and bearings for $50 in the replacement parts market. I have seen bearings in the $25 range. That is $US. But the spindles require that I use the Honda drive joints that mate to that spindle.

I have other designs where we are just using standard single row ball bearings but we use 2 bearings per upright and separate them about 1.5 inches. These bearings are in the $30 range and there are a lot of options for manufacturers. There bearings are also light section bearings so the OD, and width are modest compared to the ID.

[petawawarace]

Steve,

The car is an older Formula Renault. Chassis was made by Swift. It used Renault wheel bearings, Renault rotors, Mad’in wheels and Alcon calipers. The Mad’in wheels were 3 piece lugbolt style and hard to find. I’m converting over to OZ VD wheels. I am going to make billet uprights, and VD style hubs. For the drive, I will likely go with tripods on both end. This will be very similar to latemodel setups, but with the dimensions needed to suit my car. I’m thinking a 90x50x30.2 bearing as far as physical dimensions. That is a standard 5210 2RS bearing. But it’s the load rating and speed rating in curious about.

[R. Pare]

That bearing is huge - way bigger than the double row angular contact cartridge bearings that everybody uses ( from Saabs, VWs, Hondas, etc) - so the load ratings will be way higher than you need to worry about.

HOWEVER - do not preload the 2 bearings against each other! That is a sure way to overload the axial capacity, even with that large a bearing.

[petawawarace]

That bearing is huge - way bigger than the double row angular contact cartridge bearings that everybody uses ( from Saabs, VWs, Hondas, etc) - so the load ratings will be way higher than you need to worry about.

HOWEVER - do not preload the 2 bearings against each other! That is a sure way to overload the axial capacity, even with that large a bearing.

Late Model VD bearings are 88x49x46 so I don't think it is all that big. Its also a combined race double row bearing, so I don't believe I can preload the 2 bearings together correct?

[S Lathrop]

That is a big bearing. The Honda bearing I am using is 41 ID 79 OD and 41 Wide. This is the biggest bearing I have ever used but the price was right and the spindle worked as well.

One thing that is an issue is having the inner races of the bearings beat the spindle death. I have a car in my shop now that due to poor maintenance, the 2 rear spindles will have to be replaced. The bearings on that spindle were 32 mm wide. That car was a FF.

I would recommend a bearing that is a lot wider. or use 2 standard ball bearings with a separator between the inner races. On a rear upright, I use 2 bearings 80OD x 50ID and 16 wide. But the spindle for that upright is aluminum. I have used that bearing setup for 30 years with out a single failure. That is FC, FF and F1000 cars.

[petawawarace]

That is a big bearing. The Honda bearing I am using is 41 ID 79 OD and 41 Wide. This is the biggest bearing I have ever used but the price was right and the spindle worked as well.

One thing that is an issue is having the inner races of the bearings beat the spindle death. I have a car in my shop now that due to poor maintenance, the 2 rear spindles will have to be replaced. The bearings on that spindle were 32 mm wide. That car was a FF.

I would recommend a bearing that is a lot wider. or use 2 standard ball bearings with a separator between the inner races. On a rear upright, I use 2 bearings 80OD x 50ID and 16 wide. But the spindle for that upright is aluminum. I have used that bearing setup for 30 years with out a single failure. That is FC, FF and F1000 cars.

Steve,

Are the two 16mm wide bearings that your using angular contact bearings or deep groove bearings?

[R. Pare]

My mistake - I thought the 5210 bearing number was referring to a single row deep groove bearing!

Ignore my admonition about preload - when installed and the the nut on the stub axle is torqued, the bearing will be set to the factory-determined preload.

The 16mm bearing we've used are just deep groove bearings, and must be spaced correctly ( a hard steel spacer between the inner races, and the outer races pushed up against shoulders inside the upright) to make sure that the bearings are not preloaded.

[john f]

I would strongly suggest NOT using a single 5200 series bearing for a spindle bearing. This bearing is a solid inner/outer style bearing that has no way of externally controlling clearance/preload. A bearing like this is usually used in conjunction with another bearing of some sorts to support the shaft axis. Spindle bearings usually have a 2 piece inner race that allows for adjustment in clearance/preload. The 5200 series bearing used alone will result in a very loose feeling spindle resulting in a unit with zero rigidity. Just my $0.02.

john f

[R. Pare]

John is correct - these are not a suitable bearing for a wheel hub unless used with another bearing to prevent the spindle from tipping.

[petawawarace]

Thank you for that Info. I will look at the 2 thinner bearings spaced out. Thank you.

[R. Pare]

The simpleat thing, assuming that you are OK with machining your own hubs ( and can get the broached) would be to looke at Honda Civic front wheel bearings.

If you go with something like 2 6210 or 6010 bearings so that you can reuse the original hubs, just remember to make the inner race spacer the exact same length as the shoulder-to-shoulder distance of the outer races, and you want to harden it so that it will not collapse over time.

[petawawarace]

The simpleat thing, assuming that you are OK with machining your own hubs ( and can get the broached) would be to looke at Honda Civic front wheel bearings.

If you go with something like 2 6210 or 6010 bearings so that you can reuse the original hubs, just remember to make the inner race spacer the exact same length as the shoulder-to-shoulder distance of the outer races, and you want to harden it so that it will not collapse over time.

Im planning on making this style.

[R. Pare]

You will also then want a hardened washer between the bearing and the hub to allow a larger corner radius (in the hub) than what the bearing allows, and also make the washer slightly conical ( only about .002 - .003" from the OD to the ID) so that it spreads the load more evenly against the aluminium, and gives it a much larger contact area.