Re:Ball or taper?.

A number of companies sell cheap wheel bearing kits for the Jimny which are taper bearing based. They are almost impossible to fit, the better versions have a nylon holder to help with assembly but the dual race bearings are much better and easier to fit.. my front wheel bearing seen to last a long time. It's the rears that really take a battering

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At the beginning of this string I made a statement that the bearing fitted in the Jimny was inferior to the bearings fitted in the SJ series. This was confirmed today by a friend who runs his own bearing factor company. When I mentioned the Jimny bearing his comment was "cheap and cheerful."A taper roller is superior to a ball race, end of. Now if you want to challenge that fact , bring it on, I can take it, on the chin if necessary! but please stop avoiding the issue, which, for those who have forgotten it, revolves around two questions:-
1) Will the SJ hub unit fit the Jimny axle.
2)What are the dimensions of the Jimny bearing.
Roger

If I remember correctly from my training, the difference is that taper bearings have a contact line and ball bearings have a contact point. Than makes taper bearings able to bear higher punctual loads. And there are different qualities available for the same bearing dimension.

What I also remember is that we designed bearing for 20,000 hours and above for industrial equipment and we designed components of cars for mere 1,200 hours of design life span.

A wheel bearing has to work in radial direction and to a lower extend in axial direction and this an area were ball bearings are ok and double ball bearings are better than ok as are taper bearings.

So with this I could imagine, that both bearings are fine and it depends more on the quality of the bearing used than on the (suitable) type used and it depends on the overall design to protect a bearing from a negative environment. For ball bearings there are bearings that are protected even if overall design is not perfect.

Martin.
I used to chew up the ball bearing on my SJ and it was nothing to do with water ingress. I tried using bearings that were 1RS and I converted the shaft and housing to take a separate outer twin lipped oil seal. This helped as the bearing was now lubricated with diff oil but the main problem was that I was using a mud plugga tyre 215/15 instead of 195/80-15. Add on wheels with an extra 25mm offset and you see the problem. I toyed with the idea of using a roller race as this would dramatically improve the roller to race contact but the problem was I couldn't find a bearing to fit plus my idea of fitting a disc brake was already dubious due to the inevitable movement of the standard bearing as it moves in and out as you corner. A friend who trialled his SJ with me fitted a disc brake and found that shaft movement kept pushing his brake pistons back and his brake pedal needed pumping before he needed to stop. Stopping in a hurry wasn't a pleasant experience. Anyway, I will be looking into the possibility of using a roller race in the back as this should dramatically increase the life of the bearing but you would, in my opinion, still need to retain the drum brake.
Roger

Ok so despite repeated assertions from various members of this forum based on the evidence gathered over hundreds of thousands of miles on numerous vehicles of different ages that the manufacturer bearings are extremely durable and also that there are various taper type bearings available on the market you seem unwilling to accept the advice offered.

I have no option but to lock this thread lest it escalate into something more inflammatory.