Any update on any of the designs that are out there? I know there have been a few different setups in testing.

 

In for answers too. Looking at the front hub carnage thread makes me shutter. Ready to move to something more robust at all 4 corners.

 

I have the mazda speed ones with no problems after numerous days on the track, haven't even repacked them.

 

I have a set of the tapered roller bearings from Mazda that I may throw on the car for our next double 8 hour race in April. I already have them, so why not try them out. I'll try to follow the above videos to get them adjusted correctly. Fingers crossed.

I can't find that they have released replacement bearings cartridges. Has anyone found a source yet?

 

Call them, the last I heard they were going to be getting the brgs and the seals, don't know for sure though since that was 5 or 6 months ago..

 

I came across this set of roller bearings yesterday, and was reminded of this thread.

My leg and size 14 boot for scale:

 

GUARANTEED no fail on a Miata.

 

^ah. The bearings for the motor in hustlers vibrator. Never thought id see those.

 

I just LOLed during a video conference call. Thanks for that.

 

Wow I didnt think industry used roller bearings that large, all the industrail bearings I've seen in that size or larger have been steel with cast or welded on babbit.

 

I don't have a clue what that shaft is for. It's lying on the floor in one of the large utility spaces on the 104th floor of Sears. Most of the big pumps that drive the chilled-water system are up there, but their shafts are smaller. It's possible that it might be for an elevator- some of the machinery for them is beneath the floor near that area (basically in floor 103, but accessed from above.)

 

umm, thats like "mid sized" at best in the mining industry. The bearing company I use locally that also services the mines here has a well used 3ft OD one on display.




If I had to guess, the one posted earlier is part of a loader axle. @sixshooter?

Edit- thought we were in rando thread, i will no longer contribute to the derailment of this thread

 

I would guess the drive shafts of ocean going ships would have some of the larger high speed roller bearings around.

 

Saw the thread title and came in to see if it was really happening. Apparently not yet?

 

Yes, it is happening. There is someone else out there that is running a very cool prototype that looks very promising.

 

OK, here's the deal. We spent the time (and money) on some really promising FEA, and created a front and rear hub around the largest possible roller bearing that we could fit on a Miata. The FEA numbers said that we were much, much stronger than stock.

And then we went to a tier 1 OEM supplier for hubs. They agreed to make them for us, and built a couple of prototypes for testing. We should have asked for a dozen prototypes because we just didn't have enough to test. And while the hub looked excellent, the bearings that we called out to use were not in the hubs. The manufacturer had used no-name bearings. Ugh.

But anyway, to the test. The hubs were shaken down on track, and started showing signs of wear far sooner than they should have.

OK, maybe it was the no-name bearings. SO....the bearings were changed to name brand and were thrown on an endurance car. That car went out and won its next two races. Good. Except after the second race the hubs had play. While we tried to determine if it was the bearings, the hub design, or even the grease that was used (stock grease, not repacked), the answer didn't pop out. That's the reason for the silence.

Technically the hubs SHOULD work. On paper they are better in every way than the stocker units. But they didn't. So as a result we went back to the manufacturer and said that we needed to do a broader test with more hubs---and the correct bearings with the correct grease. We never got to this test because the large OEM manufacturer decided we were just too small to deal with. It's a crushing blow.

While it's possible to start over with another manufacturer, we may be chasing after a flawed part. We just don't know. What I do know is that a turbo Miata (or V6 or V8) with fat tires requires wheel hub bearings and hubs and spindles that are more robust than what originally came on the car. While the pure racer expects to change many components on a regular basis, wouldn't it be nice to just install the hubs and forget about them? No adjustment after every weekend. No re-greasing after 20 hours, no replacement after every season. Part of what makes a Miata so much fun is that they don't cost and arm and a leg to operate.

That is the update.

 

Wow, that sucks about the manufacturer blowing you off and substituting crappy bearings.

Do you feel that you're going to end up getting these made in any sort of saleable quantity? Would they be anything approaching a reasonable price without the tier 1 oem making them?

 

Honestly it's now not at the top of our list. If we could find another supplier to build them, maybe. We're looking at an out-of-the-box design, but right now it's just a concept. Next time we test, we'll be keeping it all secret until it's 100% proven out.

 

Why dont we just do the easy thing and copy the stock hub design, make the flange a little thicker and make the rads more generous but use 9310 cased (probably still do like 40ish Rc for the core hardness) and use grade 10 or better SiN (or heck M50 for lower cost) ***** with factory races. All the failed front hubs from wear look like they'ed easily be remedied by using more uniformly sized ***** and with harder races on the hub side. If you insisted on spending money you could make custom races you probably could size the ***** up from 10mm to a cheaper 7/16" ball and still have plenty of meat in the hub. And if you really wanted to throw money as it you probably could get all the races hard chromed to bring the surface hardness up from like 60Rc to like 75Rc.

 

We use full size ceramic BBs in the drag world, but they sure aren't cheap.

Master Ceramic & Steel Racing Bearing List