Rear axle bearings.

[Allan]

Today I stripped a rear axle assembly I recently bought at a swap meet. There were plenty of really good bits. Once I cleaned them up I discovered four axle bearings measuring just .0005 - .003" wear. Of particular interest was the fact that
there were 3 different bearings, one Hyatt, one just like a Hyatt and two Pollard brand English made bearings. There are differences. The Hyatt has he usual 4 pins riveted at- each end to hold the assembly together. The unbranded look-alike is assembled the same way. However, the spiral wound rollers in the Hyatt are made with 1/4" wide rolled strips, whereas the unbranded one uses 5/16" strips.

The other two are Pollard brand bearings made in England. The roller strips in these are 7/16" wide, so far fewer coils in each roller. Significantly, these bearings are made with 8 pins to hold the cages together, and these pins run through the eight rollers which make up the bearing. Seems to me to be a better idea. These two being on the inside next to the diff centre show just .0005" wear. The cages on the end are thicker than on the Hyatt bearing.

I checked my stash for others. I found some Hyatts with the narrow strips, far more like the Hyatts, with no brand and the wider strios in the rollers, but none made like the Pollards. I expect these would not be found in USA, whereas Empire sourced parts are more likely in Australia.

Allan from down under.

[Alan Long]

Geee Wizzz Allan, you have some lucky finds! First it’s old Tubes, Spanner and now a Diff. Most other guys who dismantle
a old diff discover a total nightmare inside. Good on you!
Alan in Western Australia

[Art M]

A few years ago, the retired Hyatt sales and engineering people were not aware of any company supplying a wound roller bearings at that time. Now they know. Too bad there are very few of us left who worked with these bearings.

As stated in an earlier post, Hyatt stopped manufacturing wound roller bearings in 1989.

Art Mirtes