1968 G10 Chevy Van front wheel bearings Question......

Make the choice to support your own economy and put your fellow Americans back to work. Buy American Made only!

,,,,,,,,but it is getting REALLY hard to find bearings made in the USA...............

These days most of the stuff that you buy that says made in the USA is made in another country and shipped to the USA then final assembly and maybe use 1 part that is actually made here. They then package it and stamp it as made in the USA.

Truthfully Made in USA is getting harder to find for sure. I did say "Made in America". Canada and the USA have trade agreements and we respect each others needs and agreements unlike other countries producing stuff cheep (by steeling our technology) and then sell on our markets while continuing  to ignore or manipulate our trade rules.

It is a fact, since establishing Canada/US trade agreements; Most things made in North America have parts made in both the USA and Canada. This is especially true in the more industrial areas of our Eastern North America. Just look at American made cars as an example.

In Canada we have laws against false advertising. The packaging of Items sold here, including items from USA companies cannot say Made in USA or Made in Canada if they were not mostly made here (there is a % value American made it has to be). They have to say on the package, "imported for (name of company)" or "Packaged for (name of company"  or "assembled in Canada" or "assembled in USA".
I don't know how its different in the USA but Canada has Government agencies set up to regulate and control packaging and advertising and they are set up in ways the commercial interests (corporations)  cannot manipulate or influence them. The Canadian Government takes the"Buy American" thing seriously, they even have government TV commercials promoting "buy Canadian" and "Buy American". They get accused of being "anti american" and being "Communists"  and those attack campaigns are driven by corporate interests, many US corporations. All you have to do is follow the news to see your current US government constantly being attacked for what they are trying to fix in the USA and if you look at the attackers, they are other parties "backed by corporate interests" .
Many USA companies don't sell their products in Canada because they don't want to or can't meet those packaging requirements.

Its  sad  that so many good things of a life style we are trying to maintain are so easily controlled and manipulated by a drive for profit which benefit so few people while damaging the  economy for the rest of us.

The only way the economies of North America are going to restore is when each of us individuals take responsibility for the part of its destruction that we "the consumer" is causing; and  change our spending habits. Make it a personal priority  to be concerned about where our money is going. We have to stop making; "How cheep it is" as our highest buying priority. Make your first "buying" priorities be  "where the item comes from", "where is your money actually going", (off shore?) or are you "supporting your local community", are you "supporting your fellow Americans"?

Brake rotors are a good example. There are many brands of brake rotors available in plain  and claimed to be high performance drilled and slotted sold at places with that companies name on it like Summit and so on. These are relatively "Cheep" off shore made rotors (and you get what you pay for) and the same model of  can be had for higher cost, made in America and it is in fact better quality steel with higher carbon and nickel content so it is actually more corrosion resistant and is a metal that absorbs and dissipates heat more evenly and quicker which results in longer usage life before is begins to warp and pulsate.
I just bought rotors for my 2009 Malibu, they had the standard rotor ( made off shore)  for $23 each. The same cheep off shore rotors came in drilled and/or slotted disguised as "high performance"for more money. I purchased a pair of (made in north America) brake rotors from a lesser popular named company. Yes I had to shop around and ask many questions to find better then the what most store are selling. These are unidirectional finned (left and right sides which have better cooling) made with American metal containing higher ratio of nickel, molybdenum and carbon ( they are also actually .004" thicker new) and are spin  balanced for $65 each.  Its not like i paid more money for the same thing. I not only purchased American made (sporting my fellow American and my local community) I also "got what I paid for" , better brakes and a higher, safer quality of life.

Think about it, cheap is not the way to go for many reasons.

M1D

The Nova Disk Rotors that move the wheels outward on my van, are tough on bearings,,,,,,

Hey Don;
I always thought the nova rotor set up on any van would be harder on the outer wheel bearings directly because of the 3/8 off set of the wheel mounting and probably even more so with your increased off set wheels. The further out the wheel goes the more the center of load becomes a lever action against the outer bearing. and the load becomes moved off the inner bearing and that amount put directly onto the outer bearing. The Nova would have had an inset wheel which would have placed the load more centered under the hub and dispersed the load to the bearings with a better distribution of the inner taking about 75% of the weight loading. Thats why I tried so hard to find a rotor that would give zero off set on the van spindle, but absolute zero just couldn't be done unless we want to go to custom hubs which would add a ridicules cost to a disc conversion.

You have all those disc bracket set ups. have you considered installing one of the other designs?

M1D

Sounds like whats really going on is you work your van hard and get every last mile out of your bearings.

I know you can get bearing with a larger bearing surface and you can also get Chrome/molly bearings and cups. But they are pricey

I have seen cheaper hubs and rotors that expanded do to heat and let go of the bearing cup while hot, enough to let it spin and of course that only continued to get worse. That happened to a van hub I have.

M1D

Here is all I can give people on this question. The only dimension I can give is the diameter back at the bracket. The caliper has a curved shape getting smaller towards the wheel so the diameter diminishes as you get closer to the wheel flange. The caliper will be closest to the wheel flange when the pads are new. A newly installed disc brake setup will have all kinds of unpredictable and unnecessary metal protrusions on the caliper and sometimes the bracket or pins that can be ground off if just touching your wheels.
This picture can help explain what I am saying.




These are the Max diameters at the brackets that all fit into my 15" wheels and this can be reduced some by grinding off a little.

    M1D10KN (Nova rotor)      12.9142"  (about 4.00" back from wheel mounting flange)
   
    M1D80TA ( Firebird Rotor)  13.4194"  (approx 3.0" back from wheel mount flange)

    M1D2KV   (Corvette rotor)  14.206"  (approx 2.5" back from wheel mount flange)

Probably the most significant difference to the Nova rotor set up is that the wheel mounting flange is set out about 3/8" more then the other two which would make more room for awkward interior shape of some older wheels.  Most newer wheels are made with much cleaner interior shape giving clearance for any disc brake set up made.

In the end I remind people converting to disc brakes that wheel fit is the gamble part you just have to deal with when it comes time to install your wheels and there is many things you can do if they don't fit right away at first try, but you might end up having to get different wheels.

Hope this helps.

Don; you wheels have such dramatic offset that they would likely fit any disc brake setup


M1D