Ang mga wheel bearings ay isang pangkaraniwang pag-aayos, ngunit madalas silang nagdudulot ng mga hamon sa panahon ng pag-install, na tumatagal ng karagdagang oras na hindi namin kailangang ilaan, at sa ilang mga kaso ay nagreresulta sa pagbalik o kalidad na hindi naaayon sa aming pamantayan. Ang Generation 1 (press in) na mga wheel bearings ay palaging ang pinakamahirap, at habang ang Generation 3 (incorporated hub at mounting flange) bearings ay ginawang mas madali ang aming mga trabaho, tiyak na magagawa nila ang kanilang bahagi ng problema.
Paano natin mapakinabangan bilang mga technician ang karaniwang pagkukumpuni na ito? Sa halip na palitan ang Gen1 o Gen3 bearing, ang pag-install ng pre-assembled knuckle hub assembly ay nag-aalok ng maraming pakinabang para sa amin at sa aming mga customer.
Inspeksyon
Madaling matukoy kung ang isang wheel bearing ay masama at kung alin ito. Nakasanayan na namin iyon, ngunit kadalasan, ito lang ang aming matutukoy hanggang sa magsimula kami sa trabaho. Ang steering knuckle ay isang kakaibang hugis na piraso ng metal. Maaari itong bahagyang baluktot mula sa matitinding lubak o isang banggaan, at hindi mo ito matukoy mula sa isang visual na inspeksyon.
Ano pa ang maaaring mali na hindi mo nakikita? Kung ito ay isang Gen1 bearing, ang snap ring grooves ay maaaring kalawangin o corroded. Kung nakipag-away ka sa mga ito, alam mong maaari silang maging isang bangungot. Maaaring kalawangin at sira ang mga panangga ng preno, o mas masahol pa, maaaring masira ang mga bolts ng panangga kung kailangan mong alisin ito.
Ball joint and tie rod mounting holes can be worn or damaged from over-tightening. Brake caliper mounting ears or brake pad contact points can be worn. All these types of issues at minimum affect the quality of the repair, and at worst can pose a potentially serious safety issue.
You’re not going to perform disassembly until the job is approved and if you discover problems at that point, you’ll have to revise the quote and wait for parts while the car takes up valuable rack space. Instead, presenting the advantages of a knuckle/hub assembly beforehand represents the high level of service you offer to your customer, and saves time in the shop. Let’s dig deeper into the advantages.
Mistakes
One of the more common mistakes during wheel bearing replacement occurs with Gen1 bearings. If the incorrect tools are used to press the bearing into the knuckle, or if the races are supported improperly when installing the hub, the bearing can be ruined. If the vehicle has an antilock braking system (ABS), some bearings have a tone wheel only on one side, and it’s an easy mistake to press them in the wrong way. You just don’t know until the ABS warning light comes on after a repair. A knuckle/hub assembly eliminates these possibilities.
The Press, the Torch, and the Chisel
Pressing Gen1 wheel bearings in and out of a steering knuckle is always a time consumer. It’s not possible to have every press tool for every bearing, and you always spend valuable time trying to find the correct combination of tools to get the job done.
If an oxyacetylene torch isn’t your best friend yet, it will be on some wheel bearings. But why even go there if you can avoid it? There’s a lot of time spent, not to mention the associated cost.
And the air chisel, often used in conjunction with the torch, is sometimes the last piece of the puzzle in breaking the hold of a Gen3 wheel bearing into a steering knuckle.
In addition to the time and expense of all these options that are just inherent with a wheel bearing job, think how you can save on the safety factor. These are three processes that require extreme caution and pose safety issues for not only the technician, but others in the shop, as well.
Cleaning
If there’s ever been a bad CV joint boot or an over-greased ball joint or tie rod end, the steering knuckle will require additional cleaning, which takes time and material. But this can be the easy part. Gen3 bearings all share a common problem, corrosion between the bearing housing and steering knuckle. In addition to the difficulty this causes during removal, all corrosion needs to be removed prior to installing the new bearing. This is a dusty, messy process, and just one more way to burn time and add wear and tear on your tools.
Alignment
Any time you remove a suspension component, you should perform an alignment. Most of the time we get lucky with a toe-only adjustment. Quite often, there’s not even the possibility of making a camber adjustment. If that’s the case and camber is out of spec, it usually comes down to a bent component. Since you usually can’t tell if a steering knuckle is bent, what could be better than knowing that it’s not?
Brakes
Some steering knuckles, in addition to the mounting point for the brake calipers, have contact surfaces on which the brake pads rest and slide back and forth. By the time a wheel bearing has gone bad, these surfaces are going to have some wear. In extreme cases, there may be deep grooves worn in them. If brake pads don’t have a clean, smooth surface, allowing them to slide, they’ll wear incorrectly. Keep the brake system operating properly and safely is just one more benefit of a new steering knuckle.
What’s the one thing that’s gotten us all? A bent brake dust shield making a scraping noise. This is even more common with a rusty, old, flimsy shield, and what’s more, how does it always seem to happen the next day after a car gets picked up? There’s nothing like a new shield to prevent this from happening.
When to Recommend
If a wheel bearing is worn out and a pre-assembled knuckle hub assembly is available, there are only positives that come from recommending one. Never miss a detail on inspection. Offer the value of safety and quality to your customer. Eliminate mistakes. Save time and material on cleaning. As a technician, every day is focused around two basic principles, performing quality repairs and efficient use of time. If there’s a way to blend both together, it’s the best way to go.
(https://www.brakeandfrontend.com)
More about VAFEM:
VAFEM is devoted to providing high quality ball & roller bearings and related transmission parts for domestic and foreign customers in the Vehicle industry and Industries. Our products used in automotive and truck industry mainly include : wheel bearings, wheel bearing kits, wheel hub bearings, alternator bearings, tensioner bearings, clutch bearings, and gear box bearings etc. Our industrial bearings are mainly used in these fields such as Industrial Automation, Home Appliances, Reducers, Agricultural Machines, Precision Machine Spindles, and Transmission Systems etc. As a high-tech company specializing in bearings, we can not only provide stable and trustworthy quality products for OEM customers, but also provide non-standard bearings based on customers’ special requirements. At the same time, we can provide a series of complete product lines and have our own brand VAFEM, it stands for the abbreviation of value added for every movement, which has been recognized by more and more customers and end users.
2023 New Week VAFEM product Recommendation:
Agricultural machinery requires better seals for contaminated conditions, provisions for misalignment, and economical mountings for shafts and housings. VAFEM offers bearings for disc harrows, planters, mowers, rakes, all types of balers, tillage, seeding and forage harvester equipment, combines, cotton pickers/stripers, and other agricultural equipment like silo unloaders and grain elevators.
Nag-aalok din kami ng kumpletong linya ng insert ball bearings, shaft mount na may alinman sa tapered adapters o locking collar o set screws. Kasama sa aming mga napatunayang disenyo ng selyo ang mga mababang torque na kalasag hanggang sa mabibigat na triple lip seal. Available din ang mga disc harrow bearings na may alinman sa bilog, parisukat, o hexagonal na mga butas. Ang lahat ng mga bearings ay magagamit na mayroon o walang re-lubrication hole.
https://www.vafem.com/products/Agricultural-Bearings/775.html
2023-07-27