3500lb axles bad design
Probably most medium size trailers have the 3500lb axles and 10" brakes. The design of the spindles has little to no shoulder to locate the inner bearing. When I looked up the blueprints, I found th...
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I’m on the cell phone right now, I’ll review your resources better when I get to the computer. To answers some questions, I emailed Dexter in hopes of getting answers in writing, but no response so far. The bearings were new Timken with about 6,000 miles on them. I did notice that the Timken is cut away even farther than other bearings I checked. I should have taken a photo of the Al-Ko axle showing that there is only contact with the sharp corner of the bearing with the radius on the spindle. Unbelievable!
I still think that the loss of bearing adjustment caused by the shoulder issue, causes bearing races to lose the proper relationship with each other. That small shoulder will wear or deform at an angle due to the way weight and side loads act on it. In addition, the unground radius and relief is not necessarily running true and it becomes the support surface. With races and rollers skewed with the spindle centerline, some torque is applied and causes the spin. Now that is my opinion, I do like to use facts.
One curious thing is that both bearings spun on the left side and no sing of spinning on the right.
I still think that the loss of bearing adjustment caused by the shoulder issue, causes bearing races to lose the proper relationship with each other. That small shoulder will wear or deform at an angle due to the way weight and side loads act on it. In addition, the unground radius and relief is not necessarily running true and it becomes the support surface. With races and rollers skewed with the spindle centerline, some torque is applied and causes the spin. Now that is my opinion, I do like to use facts.
One curious thing is that both bearings spun on the left side and no sing of spinning on the right.
