l just installed a new ball bearing fan hub and shaft, that l bought from Lang's, on my '26, because the old bushings and bolt/ shaft were pretty beat. After about 3 hours of running, the bearings seized, causing me to complete the trip without the fan belt in place. Are these sealed bearings supposed to be greased before being put into service? Nothing in the packaging stated that they were to be. I have used a needle-type greasing pin in the past to penetrate "sealed" bearings on farm equipment. Of course the bearings are made in China... Any advice?

Give Lang's a call in the morning.Don will make it right.

use the old hub and put new bronze bushings in it.

i dont trust sealed bearings, i always take the seals off with a dental tool and pack them with real grease, not the pea size squirt of what ever the hell is in there. but dont over fill them, they tend to spit out what they dont want.

either that, or save your shipping cash to send the hub back, and buy some real quality made bearings from a local supplier. it would problably cost the same as returning it.

I believe contacting Langs would be the first step. Nothing to lose and they may make good on it. As a business I'm sure they would like the feedback on a product they sell.
Gary
PS: I just put one on my '27 but have only a few minutes running on it so I'd be interested in how you make out.

I'v had one of Langs sealed fan bearing on my car for a couple of years now with no problem, Now that I'v said that it's going to fail.

For many of my working years I was in Agricultural engineering and made it a standard practice to pop the seal and pack a little extra high temp grease into bearings, I don't believe that enough is in from new, same as new car front wheel bearings, pull them down and you find very little grease in them too.

the worst are the new sealed tapered wheel bearings that you cant get apart.

im OCD, and lubrication is something that take seriously.

I had bought one of the same ball bearing hubs that you did, and the "new" bearings that were in the hub were already bad when I got it, this was two years ago. The center of the hub was filled with aluminum chips and cutting fluid, whoever made it did not even bother to clean out the hub before installing the bearings. When you would spin the hub on your finger you could feel the bearing "clicking" and actually hear the bearing. When I called to ask about it, I asked them to check another hub from their stock, sure enough, all four that they had on the shelf had the same problems.

They issued me a refund, but the new hubs were now on back-order until they got more in. I rebuilt the existing original hub in the meantime and finally got one of the new ball-bearing hubs this last year. The only trouble after that was having to buy a different size belt to fit the new hub.

You have to be very careful buying bearings made in China. Contrary to what they may advertise they are always thinking the old Chinese adage "The mountains are high and the Emperor is far away"
A Chinese double sealed bearing I purchased quickly failed was found to be devoid of any lubrication.
I found for a few extra dollars you can get a much better quality bearing and they are still cheap, just not the cheapest.
Ron the Coilman

l'm gonna let Lang's know about it and then go get american made bearings at the local bearing supply house. Does anyone have a specific bearing number that l can ask for? l really hate this China crap that gets shoved down our throats anytime we buy something sight unseen. Tax the hell out anything imported and shut it down!

if you pull the old bearings out, they should be able to find you a cross reference. it would be nice to find some Timkens;)

I bought a sealed fan hub from Snyders about 4 years ago, and it has given me great service.

I got the same unit from Langs a few years back with no negative issues to date. Have also rebuilt original as per
ford and that works well too. Just remember to get a new felt seal in it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruckzone/4384146828/in/set-72157623171821285

Less than an hour on new engine with a new ball bearing fan hub. The third time I started the engine the hub was siezed. Gotta find my packing slip. Did anyone come up with p/n for US made bearing replacements?

In most cases when a ball bearing fails quickly it is because it has been improperly installed.
The common causes are;
1. Taking all the clearance out of the bearing by press fitting it into the housing and onto the shaft. In a fan hub the bearing should only be pressed into the housing and should be a slip fit on the shaft. It should also not be fit tighter than perhaps .001" tight for a application like a fan hub.
2. Press fitting by press fitting across the races. Pressing onto the inner race when you are trying to push in the outer race would be a example of this. Driving this with a hammer would further aggrevate this.
3. The life will be shortened by over tightening the belt but I doubt that was a factor in your situation

Unfortunately some of the people that make various of these so called "improved" parts don't understand the proper way to install bearings and how to design the installation. A classic example are the ball bearing 4th mains which will last virtually for ever with no oil leaks if properly done and fail quickly if improperly done. I have not personally found much difference in life of any ball or roller bearings from any of the manufacturers if properly installed.

Bushings are really reliable. This appplication is under very little stress. A new bushing ought to last a hundred thousand miles if it gets oiled or greased with some degree of regularity.

Something that is new is not necessarily better. Ford's engineering was based on reliability and simplicity. It is difficult to improve upon.

royce,you hit the nail on the head. plain bearings almost always work.

Thou shalt not overcomplicate the Model T.

I installed the new hub (on the advise of some on the forum) because the fan was too close to the radiator with the original hub. It came as a complete unit with the bearings pre-installed so there was no excessive force applied to the bearing races on my part. I will be contacting Langs today.

Gary
And I don't doubt you at all. A bushing is certainly fine for this application, but there is also nothing wrong with a correctly installed ball bearing either.

Les, no affront taken. Just clearing things up a bit. Anyway, problem solved. Removed pulley and it seemed OK with no evident brinelling of bearings. Closer look found some fine aluminum filings on back side of pully with a slight groove cut in face. Putting assembly together out of engine showed the pin in the ecentric cam (to adjust tightness of belt in '27 engine) was hitting the pully. Removed about a 1/16" of the pin and reassembled. Every works good now. Thanks everyone for the inputs.
Gary