Troubleshooting common issues with heavy duty clutch bearings
We get it. Your wheel bearings are not at the top of your fleet inspection checklist, but just like your engine, transmission, or tires, ignoring proper maintenance procedures of your wheel bearings can cause damage. The failure of your truck’s clutch bearings, for example, could sideline it and potentially cause further damage to the entire
The five most frequently asked bearing maintenance questions
Bearings play a crucial role on all wheel ends to keep your loads rolling, and they need maintenance TLC just like any other truck component. Bower has been producing bearings since 1907, so they’ve seen it all in the field. Today, Bower Heavy Duty Bearings by NTN conducts in-field bearing maintenance training for fleets to
Getting our bearings on the heavy-duty aftermarket
The shockwave of supply chain challenges touches every segment of the heavy-duty market. That means daily communication with suppliers and distributors to get materials, parts and trucks to where they need to be. All while the trucking industry’s tectonic plates shift under the surface, causing earth-shaking changes as new technology enters the industry’s atmosphere. For
Heavy-duty truck tech tip: Wheel-end Spacer Kits
Proper wheel-end maintenance is paramount in truck safety. Wheel bearings require attention increase vehicle uptime, and help you lower truck service labor costs. Consider Pre-Adjusted Commercial Vehicle Wheel-End Kits from Bower Bearings, which consist of two tapered roller bearings with matched outer races and a heavy-duty cone spacer and are manufactured to achieve extremely tight
Unboxing A Premium Heavy Duty Differential Rebuild Kit
There’s nothing like the feeling of cracking open a box of high-quality truck components. Today, we have a Drivetrain Service Kit from Bower Heavy Duty Bearings. Let’s pop the top and see what’s inside. Components in this kit:• Seals• Sealant• Thread-locker• Bearings/ Races – Tapered Roller Bearing Sets, Cylindrical Roller Bearings & Ball Bearings NTN’s
Replacing heavy-duty truck wheel bearings: Steel, aluminum hubs make a difference
When it comes to replacing heavy duty wheel bearings, it’s important to know the differences between steel and aluminum hubs. So let’s chart the differences. Starting with steel hubs, you’ll notice that it’s a more forgiving material and you don’t need to be as careful compared to working with aluminum. It’s typically also easier to
Standard-temp vs. high-temp clutch pilot bearings: What’s the difference?
When replacing a heavy-duty clutch pilot bearing, there are a few options to consider. You should always follow the OEM recommendations as they will require either standard- or high-temperature bearing, and that difference between the two is extremely important. While clutch pilot bearings are often thought of as a relatively simple deep groove ball bearing,
Tech tip: Proper truck wheel bearing adjustment
It’s important to know what the proper bearing adjustment is to reduce premature bearing failure. For optimal bearing life, you want to have an ideal bearing end-play setting between 0.001 inches and 0.005 inches in heavy-duty wheel-end applications. To eliminate the guesswork, the TMC RP618 was designed for heavy duty wheel bearing adjustment and allows
Tech tip: Case hardening vs. through hardening truck bearing components
Do you ever lie awake at night thinking about how to harden steel to the required level for bearing components? I know I do. And that got me thinking of how important it is for a fleet manager to know the differences between through hardening and case hardening. Iron mix needs a certain amount of
The 8 most common wheel bearing maintenance issues
Wheel bearings may not be the first item you think of when making your fleet’s maintenance checklist. There are bigger components—the engine, the tires, the safety system—that, just by their nature, demand more of your attention. But that does not mean that wheel bearings can be swept under the rug, as failures can lead to
Wheel hub locking nut tips for conventional, spacer setups
In a typical HD wheel hub assembly, the locking nut is used to hold assembly together and also set the bearing end play (for conventional setups). There are many types of lock nuts in use. The most common ones include:• Conventional Dowel Type (Double Nut)• Single nut with separate keeper (Ex: Stemco’s Protorq)• Integrated design
What you need to know about pre-adjusted wheel bearing
For the Heavy Duty truck market, there is an option to use pre-adjusted wheel bearing sets with spacers or conventional wheel bearing sets. Pre-Adjusted sets are typically used with a spacer setup. We get the question “Can a technician use a conventional bearing set with a spacer in place of a pre-adjusted set”. Short answer
