Early trailing arm wheel bearings

TheSecondChris · TheSecondChris's Garage

I'm having a local shop replace my early style rear wheel bearings and sourced some parts. I wasn't sure which aftermarket manufacturer to choose, SKF or FAG, and also didn't want to get a bearing from a good manufacturer that came from one of their possibly lesser manufacturing facilities. So, to eliminate any guesswork I purchased directly from a dealership since the absolute cost difference was pretty minimal in this case.

The bearings I received are all SKF. The rear roller bearings are made in Germany and the rear ball bearings are made in Italy.

Porsche on the Outside

SKF on the inside - including the actual box which is folded inside out.

TheSecondChris · TheSecondChris's Garage

I sourced some front bearings from my local European parts supplier. These were all SKF as well, but the inner bearing was made in China and the outer made in Brazil. I took them out of the packaging and they appear to be of fine quality.

I have to wonder what would be in the bearing boxes if I had purchased these bearings directly from Porsche.

TheSecondChris · TheSecondChris's Garage

Old bearings are out and new bearings are installed on all four wheels. The ones removed from the rear are likely original. The roller bearing was FAG while the ball bearing was SKF, which I found interesting. These were replaced because there was some observable amount of play in the wheels.

The fronts were replaced because one side was making a lot of noise. The noise appeared at 20mph and sounded like something was rough at one point in the wheel revolution. I suppose it was one section of the tapered rollers. These front bearings were installed by the previous owner less than 10 years ago and also have less than 30K miles of wear. The brand name is HL which appears to be a Chinese manufacturer specializing in tapered bearings. Not sure where the PO sourced these bearings but is certainly wasn't Pelican Parts. The mechanic noted that the front bearings were installed in a ham-handed manner and he needed to clean up the hub so that the new races would fit properly.