1990 Vert Hub / Bearing Assembly Timken question
 

I am looking at picking up the front and rear hubs assemblies from Rock Auto, Timken part numbers 513019 and 513020. My concern is are they made in the US? Don't want to go to all the work to put China bearings in there. I have heard that some of Timken's bearings are now made in China but have not confirmed that. Has anyone bought the above Timken parts lately and if so where were they manufactured? I can return to RA but would eat freight both ways which is fair, but not what I want to do if someone has history on these parts.

Any other recommendations for these parts other than Timken?

Thanks,

My first thought is if Timken puts it's name on it then it will be high quality. I did two rears in my 96 and they were very high quality. Dan

Dan thanks for the reply. I emailed Timken to see what they say. I just do not trust the China stuff, but the way things are going might be the only choice. I'm old enough to remember when I thought the same about stuff made in Japan but that is dating me a little.

I can write the response from Timken if you want. Here it is," While Timken has manufacturing plants in many different countries the quality of our steel and manufacturing tolerances are the same at all plants. You can be assured that a Timken bearing is the highest quality made today. The country of origin is not a factor".

Some Timken are Made in China
 

At least some Timken Hubs are made in China. Purchased a set of four and one is clearly marked Made in China. The other three no markings stating Country of Origin.
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Good luck. I don't think there is any option for a rear hub/bearing on C4s anymore that is not made in China. If anyone finds one, please let us know. Timken, SKF, AC Delco - doesn't matter, they are all now made in China. There may still be differences in materials or other quality factors among the various Chinese bearings - I really don't know. WBI used to make an "HD" version of the rear hubs with tapered roller bearings. But that's no longer in production. At this point, I'm likely to just buy cheap lifetime-warranty rear bearings and change them out every year or two. They aren't that hard to replace.

Up front, the story is almost the same. There are two exceptions that I know of. There was a rebuildable tapered-roller bearing setup from Hoosier Performance Engineering for about $750/ea, but I am not sure they are in business anymore. But Strano Performance Parts has an adapter kit that lets you use the SKF X Tracker hubs on a 4th-gen F-body or C4 (at least the later ones). It's still expensive, but it's road-race tested in Dave Schotz's C4 and would likely be the last front bearings you'd ever need to buy. Other than this option, you're looking at Chinese-made junk that you'll need to replace fairly often. But at least replacing the fronts is super-duper easy.

Bought Timken from RA last year for my 93, and there were no "made in" marks anywhere....box or parts. Seems to be high quality anyway.

i just did this on my 86. I used the timken from RA that you mention. Made in China. Looked well made though. No issues with fit.

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Last year I completely rebuilt and modified the entire suspension on my 90 convertible. I used Moog bearing assemblies front and rear. I purchased them from Advance Auto Parts .com. If you look around, you can find a 25% off coupon, and the shipping is free. Using the 25% off coupon, the fronts cost $103.00 plus tax and the rears $78 plus tax, with free shipping. The Moog assembly appeared to be a good high quality part, much like the Timken, and has a 3 year warranty. Last summer, I auto-crossed the car 3 times, and have driven it hard, and just inspected them and am happy to report that they appear to be in good condition. I have only used top quality parts on this car, and felt that the Moog assemblies were a good choice.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...167e64cb5e.jpg

They are all good if you don't road race or autocross on "Race Tires", like Hoosiers. And I believe they are all Korean or Chinese now. I have SKF, WBI, MOOG all sitting on a shelf, worn out after a few weekends of gentle autocrossing. I have done the MOOG from Advance Auto because of the warranty, I'm on the 3rd one now (only paid for one) since July of 2018 Probably have put less than 50 miles on the car in that time.

The key to wearing them out is the sticky tires.

Street tires on the street and they all are good

Keep in mind on the "rears", proper torque of the spindle nut is crucial to bearing life. If it comes loose, your rear bearing will toast itself. Check your factory service manual, but I believe it's around 160 lb./ft

My thought is that exactly. It is the spec to which they are made. The Chinese can make excellent products BUT you must commission it. Problem is we, the consumers do not. By that I mean that if we refuse to accept it (lower quality stuff), the company you bought it from will have no choice but to increase the quality. Unfortunately, when buyer is willing to accept it (on the whole) because of the lower price over the better quality piece, albeit with a higher price, you are telling the manufacturer to lower the quality to sell more. When they comply and you are unhappy, you (the group) needs to go to the bathroom mirror to look for the culprit.

I can confirm that Timken bearings made globally are to the same spec with the same steel as those produced in the US. Timken Steel from Canton, OH is shipped to China. My only caution to someone would be if you buy them through Ebay or other means via private seller make sure the name on the box is spelled correctly, the box has the brand security label and the product is stamped with the name, part#..etc.

Here is the quality statement:

Our commitment to quality preserves the integrity of the Timken brand, not to mention the confidence we’ve built with our customers. That’s why we invest millions of dollars each year in R&D, training and process improvement – to ensure that customers receive consistent quality from Timken products, no matter where in the world they were manufactured.

Off the soap box, sorry for the rant

How does the quality statement tell anything really? Sounds like a page off the car manual that says "Congratulations. You have bought......".

It doesn't, I added it to show it was out there in writing. The rest of what I said I know to be true.....first hand knowledge.

FWIW I always used Timken bearings, but over the last few years I have had several fail prematurely. They did honor their warranty, but I have since started using SKF bearings, no issues so far.

So I've been doing a little searching, and I see that there is nothing available with a lifetime warranty (my mistake in the post above). Even Timken is only 1 year. The best warranties I see are Moog and SKF at 3 years. I can get the Moog at Advance Auto Parts locally for about $79, but the SKFs are only available at Napa for about $200. Any reason that I shouldn't go for the Moog part? Is there a longer warranty out there that I'm missing?