Help me find some balls
 

I was doing my annual front bearing repack and busted one of the bearing keepers so I got some China specials off fleabay. I cleaned the Beijing snot out of them and stuffed them full of AmsOil goodness so I'll be fine for the rest of the season but it occurred to me that the original hubs are fine except for the cooked keepers.

I searched a bit and found a few threads where replacement G10 balls were discussed (including this one) but I haven't ever seen anyone say where they have found these magical bits of roundness or confirmed an exact size.

I mic'd one of my existing balls at .4062" and it seems pretty round since I get the same measurement over and over no matter how I spin it. I saw the seals listed on a spec shop's site somewhere and I would rebuild my hubs as-is if I could find the keepers for sale anywhere. Has anyone ever seen the keepers listed for sale anywhere? A supply line of new keepers with G10 balls and new seals and you could keep an entire race team on the track for years with a few junkyard spares in constant rotation.

Can anyone help me hold my balls? Anyone have a line on some better balls? :giggle:

I've been failing to find keepers as well.

I seem to remember ending my quest with a number of Alibaba searches where keepers were available but measurements, contacts etc would require a dedicated effort (i.e. I did not pursue it).
E.g.
Plastic Cage,Nylon Cage,Brass And Steel Cage / Ball Bearing Cage - Buy Bearing Cage,Steel Bearing Cage,Brass Bearing Cage Product on Alibaba.com
Steel Cage,Brass Cage,Nylon And Plastic Cage /bearing Cage - Buy Bearing Cage,Steel Cage,Brass Cage Product on Alibaba.com

Or in India
Angular Contact Ball Bearing Cage, Combined Cylindrical/taper Roller Bearing Cage & Spherical Bearing Cage Supplier & Manufacturer from Rajkot, India

I'm not sure you would be able to get them any more cheaply than the $30 China specials from Rock Auto anyway. Maybe just use those as a ball/keeper source.

Here you go.

Chrome Steel 13/32 (.4062) diameter

https://bearingballstore.com/index.p...egory&cat_id=2

Awesome. That's way less expensive than a cheap hub. I'm marking that link.

Props! $20 for 75 balls which will be enough to do two hubs with several dropped on the floor to spare! Is Grade 25 chrome where we want to be?

Typically that would be SAE 52100 (AMS6440) so yes, it's a good grade of steel and used in good bearings. But you'd want to check the races pretty closely. Usually in a good bearing the balls are "classed" I.E. graded by size.

If you want to keep rebuilding the same hubs you will also need a surface grinder to grind the inner races to properly set the clearance. Even when replacing the balls the races will still wear and the races will need the be made slightly thinner to get the clearance set properly.

I keep destroying my china hubs I think its because I'n torquing them to like 120ftlsb. I have to do a set this week before leaving for jersey I'm just going to put the breaker bar on the nut and stand on it like I do to torque the rear axle nuts.

IMO if you're buying balls. At least get grade 10. But an experiment with zicon's would be really really nice. You should end up with less friction and higher load rating.

You also should be able to get those bearing cages from SKF or NTN. You're going to have to get them on the phone or by email and use the part number etched into the race. I have a felling you're going to need to order a bunch of them.

The races on the old hubs (used 5 seasons and repacked 3 times) look perfect. I've never had one fail - I always pull them apart as preventative maintenance. The grease is always black and stinky and the keepers have finally got brittle and broke but I wouldn't trust myself to surface the races properly. The cost of taking them to a shop to be done defeats the cost saving DIY approach. How is the clearance measured on these?