[dodge2461]

Hello. Me and my friend are trying to restore a 1977 Datsun 280z, and are currently redoing the front wheel bearings. When we try to put the wheel hub and rotor on the car, it doesn’t go far enough, meaning the calipers won’t fit on their brackets. We tried to take it off and the inner bearing and seal stayed on the spindle. This was a Timken LM67048 purchased from ZCarDepot(I believe, my friend bought them) in a set. I just bought a set of Duralast bearings and tried to put them on the spindle just to have them stick in the same spot as the Timken ones. I take a look at the rim and I see the same number, LM67048. I have no clue what’s going on at this point. Is that number the right number for the car? The car was owned by an old lady, so I really doubt there was any mods done to it, but I’m not quite sure what to think at this point. I’ll include a picture of where the spindle gets stuck, I didn’t put a whole lot of force on it but it didn’t seem like it wanted to move any farther. Any help would be massively appreciated, because I’m about to kick a wall lol

 

[pilgrim]

Is there any number on the original bearings? They can also provide inside measurements to compare with the replacements.

It looks like that one has an ID that's too small.

I presume you put a new, un-lubed bearing on for illustration...

 

[dodge2461]

Is there any number on the original bearings? They can also provide inside measurements to compare with the replacements.

It looks like that one has an ID that's too small.

I presume you put a new, un-lubed bearing on for illustration...

Thank you for the reply! We actually had the original hubs stolen with the original bearings inside, meaning we’re working with new hubs and bearings. And yes, the one on the picture in a new unlubed bearing, but we have put a fully packed and prepared bearing in a hub before and got the same result.

 

[dumbestone]

Might want to mic your spindle, hub and the ID of the bearing if you have access to mics or vernier caliper or a shop, like Pep Boys.
Go to a bearing website like Timken and look for outer race cups and bearing cones around the size of your spindle and search for very close dimensions. The dimensions will be to ten-thousands in the charts but you get the idea.

 

[chaseincats]

You may have bought the wrong wheel bearings. Here are the two (inner and outer) bearings I bought which worked:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BZNAEC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BZJWBC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[dodge2461]

You may have bought the wrong wheel bearings. Here are the two (inner and outer) bearings I bought which worked:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BZNAEC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BZJWBC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Set 6/ LM67048 is the set I keep ending up with. I’ve bought 3 different bearings and they are all the same, and fit on exactly the same as in the original picture. I’m at a complete loss at this point. The spindle seems stock, it was owned by an old lady and hasn’t been driven since 1999. I’m going to take a micrometer to it and get some definitive measurements tonight because I’m at a loss right now.

 

[dodge2461]

So I went out there with a Micrometer and measured where the spindle in supposed to ride, and got 1.263”. Is this bigger than a normal 280z spindle? Where can I take this info to get a bearing that will fit? I checked Timken and they seem to only want to sell commercially.

 

[ensys]

How do you know the replacement hubs are actually correct for your car?

 

[dumbestone]

Timken website shows this as a 1.250 bore bearing with 2.328 OD outer cup. The only bearings with 1.260 bore have cups that are larger than the 1.250 cup.

Part Number LM67048 - LM67010, Tapered Roller Bearings - TS (Tapered Single) Imperial On The Timken Company

Browse Part Number LM67048 - LM67010, Tapered Roller Bearings - TS (Tapered Single) Imperial in the The Timken Company catalog including Part Number,Item Name,Description,Series,Cone Part Number,Cup Part Number,Design Units,d - Bore,D - Cup Outer Dia

cad.timken.com

Tapered Roller Bearings - TS (Tapered Single) Imperial On The Timken Company

Browse Tapered Roller Bearings - TS (Tapered Single) Imperial in the The Timken Company catalog including Part Number,Series,d - Bore,D - Cup Outer Diameter,B - Cone Width,C - Cup Width,T - Bearing Width,C1 - Dynamic Radial Rating (1 million revoluti

cad.timken.com

You can select the bore and cup id/od on the left of the page ... other wise it's a long search thru about 40 pages.
Did you check the spindle at multiple points around and front to back in case it's out of round? You say you had the bearing on but it stayed when you removed the hub. So it will go on a bit?

 

[chaseincats]

Set 6/ LM67048 is the set I keep ending up with. I’ve bought 3 different bearings and they are all the same, and fit on exactly the same as in the original picture. I’m at a complete loss at this point. The spindle seems stock, it was owned by an old lady and hasn’t been driven since 1999. I’m going to take a micrometer to it and get some definitive measurements tonight because I’m at a loss right now.

Did you get the A2 as well like I linked to? You need both sizes (one is inner and the other is the outer wheel bearing).

 

[dodge2461]

How do you know the replacement hubs are actually correct for your car?

I suppose they couldn’t be, but I bought them off a site that specializes in these things, they look exactly like my old hubs, and they fit the old outer bearings(we lost the inner when they were stolen, but we kept the outer bearings and all the hardware to get it on the spindle

 

[Zdatsuns]

Ive done hundreds of front brake jobs on S30s maybe I can help. Assuming they are all the right parts you have to use alittle finesse and push the rotor assy on the spindle horizontally and alittle side to side its a tight fit with new inner bearing. New inner bearings rarely slide on the spindle without the side to side encouragement. Leave the outer bearing(smaller one) out of the hub until you do this process of side to side.

 

[oregonipa]

Just measured my 280Z inner spindle; 1.25".

 

[dodge2461]

Ive done hundreds of front brake jobs on S30s maybe I can help. Assuming they are all the right parts you have to use alittle finesse and push the rotor assy on the spindle horizontally and alittle side to side its a tight fit with new inner bearing. New inner bearings rarely slide on the spindle without the side to side encouragement. Leave the outer bearing(smaller one) out of the hub until you do this process of side to side.

This and Oregonpina’s post make me feel a little better lol. I’ll try putting more finesse into it Monday when I have time to work on it and update you all then. For now though thank you all for your help!

 

[dumbestone]

Is there anything that would keep you from putting the cone on the spindle and allowing the cup, installed in the hub, to slide onto the cone?
That would allow you to use a "sleeve" to tap the cone inner core onto the spindle.

 

[dodge2461]

Okay, so it’s been a few days and after trying for 4 hours to get the hubs to fit on any better than before, I have finally realized my problem. Ensys was right, the new hubs I got were wrong. Despite ordering 280z hubs I got the 240z hubs with the cutouts on the edges instead of the circular edge all around. I have no idea how me, my friend, and my dad didn’t notice this despite us all working on the car but here we are lol. Now I’m super parinoid, and I have a two questions:

1. I’m gonna attach a picture of the hubs I have, they are the wrong hubs, right? I’m seeing a lot of pics that say that but I just want to make sure.

2. This is just to save me some money, but do the 280zx hubs fit the 280z? They look way closer to the 280 than the ones I have right now.
Thanks again for all your help! Me and my friend were about to just give up lol