Bob,
Repack every 6000 miles per the maintenance schedule until you feel they
should be replaced. BTW, you don't want one to fail, it happened to me in
the 70's; in the middle of nowhere. You can buy Timken bearings in San Jose.
Front wheel bearings, races and grease nipples, most likely the long ones
for the U-joints, cost me $145 in 2010.
Don't know where they are made but Applied Industrial Technologies might
have them in stock, in San Jose, or should be able to have them locally
available in one or two days from the order date. Also, they should be able
to tell you where they are made. Applied is located on Brokaw Road near
Fry's. For those who don't know, Fry's was a grocery store that
metamorphosed into an electronics retailer decades ago.
https://www.applied.com/
You can go to there and actually talk with people who are very helpful. I
bought wheel bearings for my BT7 there and the bearing number and design was
slightly different than the OEM spec. I checked all of that out with the
Applied sales person. However, the only difference was the radius on the
bore at one of the faces. I did not think it made a difference because of
the way the bearings are captured on the axel. No problems at 6000 miles but
I will report back because I am in the process of repacking per scheduled
maintenance. Going to check my shim stock right now.
John, the mechanic
'62 BT7
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