dchildress

All right. After months of putting it off I finally decided I had better put a new wheel bearing on the front right of my 94 coupe. My wife wants to drive it to Bristol for the races which is about a 5 to hour drive one way. AC was crazy high as was National. Seems like one of those was actually discontinued. Remembering a thread about using a 95 Z28 hub I bought one from the local supplier for $146 compared to $380 for the one called out for my Vette. Out of the box it looks just like the Vette unit. Side by side, however, the Z28 unit has a thicker baseplate and the holes are threaded instead of bolt thru like the Vette. A 29/64 drill bit got rid of the threads and a tiny bit of boring out the hole to get the bolts in and I have a perfect fitting wheel bearing. I drove it up the road and it works just fine. The measurements from the backside of the baseplate to the front face of the bearing hub are identical. The ABS sensor plugged right up without tripping any ASR or ABS lights.

The only trick was having to waller (sp?) the hole a little and put the bolts in the hub before putting it on the car. In fact, the holes for the bolts were smaller than the ones in the hub that came off the car.

I will post pics for anybody that wants to see it...I can take the bearing back out in a matter of 10 minutes. I will also let you guys know if anything goes wrong. But for the savings of over $200, I am willing to give it a shot.

jrp

I did the same for both front bearings (can't remember at the moment which F-body model/year I ordered up) and they have worked out great for a year or so, although with something less than 2000 miles.

Mine had the same differences you noted, but the backside of the hub was also shorter in height. They didn't protrude through the knuckle as far as OEM, but there was still no problem plugging in the ABS connector.


I came out ahead, even with the purchase of a small drill press that I used once and may never need again.

BrianCunningham

FYI tapered front bearings are coming out this month for the C4 from Van Steel

HardbarUSA.com (forum vendor) will be selling them.

dchildress

I was trying to hold off until those came out but the bearing was so bad that with the car off the ground I could shake the wheel at least a 1/4 of an inch at 12/6 and at 9/3. With the bearing on the bench I can wiggle it enough to hear it clicking and see it move maybe only a 32nd. I can really feel it when somebody holds the studs down and I wiggle the ABS sensor part.