K20 : Rebuilding the axles

[Doppleganger]

My axles are 35 yrs old and every seal is wet to a point. There is an old guy locally who is great with these - want to pull my axles and let him do the whole shebang.....bearings, seals - everything. Its better if I take the parts to use as if not, he'll get a 'premium' blister pack AZ, Oreilly, etc brand. Sometimes that works ok (my last set was all USA/Canada made Moog). Sometimes it doesn't.

Is there a premium brand or all in one kit to do the axles complete you fellas prefer? I know Dana, Richmond and Timken all make kits - but not sure how many are still US or Canadaian made. Alot of the newer Gates stuff is now Chi-com, so dunno.

Ever use Amsoil gear lube in the diffs?

Gotta do this truck in stages to keep from standing next to an off ramp with a sign. The drive line, brakes, etc is first up.

TIA

 

[TubeTruck]

Being in the machine repair business I can say that a lot of machinery uses SKF and *** bearings. These are high speed high load machines and the bearings last decades when properly taken care of. I'm a die hard Timken fan myself but I have a bit of old school in me.

I've never looked into "kits" per se for wheel bearings and seals. I do know there are kits for the differential. Now-a-days I just go to Rockauto.com and sort what I need. It's usually cheaper than other sites and definitely cheaper than a parts store if you don't need the items right away.

I'm currently sourcing parts to rebuild my front 10 bolt and rear 14 bolt. For the front I can do knuckle out (ball joints, brakes, bearings, etc.) for about $300, and that's both sides included.

 

[Doppleganger]

After wasting the last 30yrs working on the older 4-n stuff, SKF's were always top shelf (German or Swedish made). Just gotta watch it as there are also Chinese and Mexico SKF's, which are garbage. **** were also very common.....IIRC, mostly made in Spain or Italy.

My first tool and die job was for Timken - got bearings for all my cars there for nada. lol

I'm a complete noob with these trucks so not sure on what to replace and with what....why I was hoping for a kit. Gotta find an exploded view I guess.

THX!

 

[Turbo4whl]

In my career I have rebuild many axles. Yes the bearings from China are junk. Just as a side note the bearings from Japan seem to be much better. A quality roller bearing, properly lubed will not wear out. There is the problem though, contaminants in the oil, or lack of oil, bearings start to fail. I have also bought bearing kits from Rockauto. They did list the country of origin.