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Replace Bearings - Cleveland Wheels

FlyingBanker

FlyingBanker

Well Known Member
Patron
I need to replace the bearings in the main gears on my RV-6A. Haven't ever done this before. I've got a friend with experience that is going to help me with the replacement, but I need some assistance on exactly what I need to order. The wheels are Cleveland Part #40-78B 5.00-5. Is there someplace that will give me some information on this job and what parts I need to order. The info I've found online is very confusing to me.
 
You can go to the Cleveland web site, might be Parker Hannifin, and DL the exploded view of your wheel set. That will give you all the part numbers you need.
 
Jim,

I don't have my '91 era RV-4 wheel p/n handy, but for it, the following info is what I have.

The 'stock' tapered bearing set for Clevelands are 'precision' bearings. They are fairly pricey. From an old Matronics RV-list post:

I don't know whose P/Ns those are (maybe Van's), but from the Parker
Cleveland Parts List, I show the Cone Bearing as Cleveland P/N 214-00400 and the
Race (Cup) as Cleveland P/N 214-00300.

Some of us have found that in our personal experience, the following 'less precision' bearings fit the axle/wheel, and have given hundreds of hours of good service (links are to NAPA part #s, but they are Timken bearings):
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BRGBR08231
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BRGBR08125

The Timken #s are 08125 & 08231. You need two sets for each wheel.

You must make your own decision on whether to pay the premium for the higher precision versions (if you order the Cleveland p/n, you'll likely get Timken bearings; just the higher precision tolerance versions).

Charlie
 
FlyingBanker said:
I need to replace the bearings in the main gears on my RV-6A. Haven't ever done this before. I've got a friend with experience that is going to help me with the replacement, but I need some assistance on exactly what I need to order. The wheels are Cleveland Part #40-78B 5.00-5. Is there someplace that will give me some information on this job and what parts I need to order. The info I've found online is very confusing to me.
Click to expand...

Have you looked into the main wheel bearing mod offered by Antisplataero? They are sealed, low-maintenance, permanent, and impressive- Otis
https://antisplataero.com/products/main-wheel-bearing-mod
 
Jim,
Vans sells the parts you need if you have the time to wait.
https://shop.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/shop.cgi?ident=1557842953-74-24&browse=am&product=wheel-parts

I have purchased them from a local auto parts store, they had them in stock under the brand Timkin. Just take your old part there and match it up.

Obviously you will need to jack the plane and remove the wheel, then remove the bearing clip/washer/felt/washer/cone bearing. Once there flip the wheel/tire over and use a punch to reach in and slowly tap the
"race" out....slowly and keep moving the punch around the edge so you don't get the race crooked. Once you have it out, reverse order for installing the new one.
 
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Cleveland has a component maintenance manual that addresses changing the bearings. You must replace the race if you replace the bearing. It is very easy to remove the bearing races from the wheel halves if you heat them in an oven at 250 deg f. Reinstallation is really easy if you heat the wheels and chill the races in dry ice. They literally drop in, no risk of damage to the wheels.

That said, I had Anti Slat replace my bearings with their mod and they are now no maintenance.
 
Just remove the bearing and take it to a local bearing shop and purchase timkin bearings. The bearing will have a number on it. Remove the inner race by just tapping it out, and install the same way. Clean and reuse the felt seal. Spray it with brakeclean and press it between a few paper towels. Saturate with oil and press between paper towels again..... they will last for 20 years. Remove all of the play in the bearing when you install the wheel... snug it up first, then back it off after it's seated, then tighten just over HAND tight. This procedure is for NON sealed bearings used on the RV6/6A.
 
My hangar mate did the anti-splat aero wheel mod on his -6 and it looks very nice and rolls noticeably easier than my -6. This mod is on my to do list.
No noticeable reduction in shimmy........
 
I gotta say, if I were choosing between the Cleveland bearings (plus the work) and the Anti-Splat mod, it would be no contest.
 
If I?m reading correctly, for the Anti-Splat mod, you have to send the wheels to Anti-Splat. How long does it take to get this done and get them back? In other words, how long will my plane be down for maintenance?
 
As soon as it gets to them they perform the operation. Very fast turn around time. It?s really about how much you want to spend on shipping.
 
gasman got it right. I just did the bearing and race change using Timkin brand on my RV7 with a local company. I had to wait a day for the parts to get to the store, but no shipping charges.
 
One little proviso about AntiSplatAero main wheel mod-

I sent in my main wheels (along with a pair of NIB brake discs), pretty much the way they came off of the airplane. They did a good job with machining the rims for a press fit of the new sealed bearings and they installed the new discs and balanced the complete assembly, which was promptly returned to me. What they did NOT do is make any effort at all to clean up the wheels. i was a little shocked to see that even the new adhesive lead weights they installed were applied right on top of the dirt, grease, and scum that was on the wheels when I sent them in.

I had mistakenly assumed that the first thing they would do is bead blast all of the parts to be reused after assembly, making it possible to carefully inspect them to insure that they were airworthy before actually doing the work. That would have been SOP at any certified aircraft repair facility.

I?m not suggesting that they were under any obligation to do this, nor that they made any promises along those lines, but if I had it to do over I would disassemble the wheels and bead blast them or at least thoroughly clean them, before shipping them, and I?d recommend that anyone thinking about sending in their wheels do this as well.

I do think that adhering the weights without first scuffing and cleaning the contact surfaces was inexcusable. I?m thinking I may need to disassemble these, bead blast them, and have them rebalanced before reinstalling them. I?m a big fan of Allan Nimmo and think he provides a real service to the RV community, so please don?t read this as an attempt to disparage the company in any way, but I have to admit that I felt badly about this. My bad, I guess, for not asking in advance.- Otis
 
RVDan said:
Rolls smoothly, but not able to tell if it has any effect on shimmy. That was not my main reason for doing the mod.
Click to expand...

If they roll that easy, maybe they will never be at rest during a flight. Someone with a camera mount should stripe their altered tire and see if is spinning during flight.

An out of balance tire spinning along at 180mph might be a real PITA.
 
Hartstoc said:
What they did NOT do is make any effort at all to clean up the wheels. i was a little shocked to see that even the new adhesive lead weights they installed were applied right on top of the dirt, grease, and scum that was on the wheels when I sent them in.

I had mistakenly assumed that the first thing they would do is bead blast all of the parts to be reused after assembly, making it possible to carefully inspect them to insure that they were airworthy before actually doing the work. That would have been SOP at any certified aircraft repair facility.

I?m a big fan of Allan Nimmo and think he provides a real service to the RV community, so please don?t read this as an attempt to disparage the company in any way, but I have to admit that I felt badly about this. My bad, I guess, for not asking in advance.- Otis
Click to expand...

?? It seems I need to do a little bit of explaining and some clarification as well to you Otis. I performed this service on your wheels myself and remember it due to the disc change. We typically accomplish the bearing upgrade machining with the wheels assembled, prior to disassembly. When we are changing tires and tubes we disassemble and clean all parts in our Jet-Kleen before reassembly. You didn't order tires, and didn't send any in with your request so we just did the bearing change, installed your brake discs, and rebalanced the assemblys. We don't blast the wheels unless we see corrosion, as this removes the plating that prevents magnesium from corroding. I would have performed this service for you no charge if you had told me in advance you wanted it. When balancing we mark the spot where the imbalance is, and wipe this area with brake clean. Then we wipe it with an activator that is necessary to make the bonding agent work. Had this not have been done the weights would not have adhered at all. I am as you are, very disappointed that you were unhappy with our service or work. I wish you had given me a call, and expressed your feelings as soon as you received your wheels, so I could have addressed this immediately. I take a lot of pride in the fact that we don't have any unhappy customers (???). So, that being said, please tell me what we can do to remedy this situation, and get you back on the happy side. I do apologize for any misconceptions and or inconveniences we have caused you, and we will make it right. Thanks, Allan..:eek::eek:
 
Its been my experience that stick on weights will fall off if you operate off rough grass. I've contemplating making a ring which would attach to the three bolts holding the halves together such that the weights could be just a stack of washers bolted thru holes inside the ring which would be inside the brake disc. When running 380 tires (or normal 500x5 tires) often I found them very out of round brand-new and they would take a lot of weight to balance.

When Alan does the bearing mod (which is a great mod BTW) I believe he machines a spacer between the halves which sets the bearing preload so that one can run the nut up tight. This should improve resistance to shimmy because the asymmetric binding that occurs with any looseness in the bearing preloads is solved by having a spacer in between the bearings.
 
PerfTech said:
…… It seems I need to do a little bit of explaining and some clarification as well to you Otis. I performed this service on your wheels myself and remember it due to the disc change. We typically accomplish the bearing upgrade machining with the wheels assembled, prior to disassembly. When we are changing tires and tubes we disassemble and clean all parts in our Jet-Kleen before reassembly. You didn't order tires, and didn't send any in with your request so we just did the bearing change, installed your brake discs, and rebalanced the assemblys. We don't blast the wheels unless we see corrosion, as this removes the plating that prevents magnesium from corroding. I would have performed this service for you no charge if you had told me in advance you wanted it. When balancing we mark the spot where the imbalance is, and wipe this area with brake clean. Then we wipe it with an activator that is necessary to make the bonding agent work. Had this not have been done the weights would not have adhered at all. I am as you are, very disappointed that you were unhappy with our service or work. I wish you had given me a call, and expressed your feelings as soon as you received your wheels, so I could have addressed this immediately. I take a lot of pride in the fact that we don't have any unhappy customers (???). So, that being said, please tell me what we can do to remedy this situation, and get you back on the happy side. I do apologize for any misconceptions and or inconveniences we have caused you, and we will make it right. Thanks, Allan..:eek::eek:
Click to expand...

Thanks for your post, Allan- one more proof of your deep integrity! Youi are right, I should have contacted you directly with this issue, and hope you can appreciate that I was the one who first enthusiastically suggested your mod to the guy who started this thread. I only related my experience in the second post out of a sense of obligation. It never even occurred to me that the mod could be performed without full disassembly of the wheels, So I’ll take the blame for the misunderstanding. Maybe it would be a good idea for you to cover the topic of cleaning or not cleaning in your literature.

I’m in the middle of a huge set of mods, so the wheels are still sitting as received. I’ll send them back to you (with a check to cover return shipping), and we can discuss a strategy. Warm regards, Otis
 
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rocketbob said:
Its been my experience that stick on weights will fall off if you operate off rough grass. I've contemplating making a ring which would attach to the three bolts holding the halves together such that the weights could be just a stack of washers bolted thru holes inside the ring which would be inside the brake disc. When running 380 tires (or normal 500x5 tires) often I found them very out of round brand-new and they would take a lot of weight to balance.

When Alan does the bearing mod (which is a great mod BTW) I believe he machines a spacer between the halves which sets the bearing preload so that one can run the nut up tight. This should improve resistance to shimmy because the asymmetric binding that occurs with any looseness in the bearing preloads is solved by having a spacer in between the bearings.
Click to expand...

Bob- There is a precision spacer separating the inner bearing races on the nose wheel mod such that you can torque down the axel nuts with impunity, making for a much more rigid fork assembly. Not so with the mains. True, the bearings are sealed units that do not have the tapered races and rollers that you have to be SO careful to position with just the right amount of play before inserting the cotter pins, but you do have to install the modified main wheels without side pressure binding on the bearings, so you still need the cotter pins.- Otis
 
Cleveland Nose Wheel Bearings?

Reviving this old thread. Great info regarding the bearings for the main wheels. What are the Timken numbers for the Cleveland nose wheel?
 
I bought a set of Timken bearings and races from NAPA to replace the OE parts from Vans on a friends RV8. They were the same parts (part numbers). Easy to replace, and performed like new, because they were.
 
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