I know this topic has risen over a year ago in this forum, but was wondering if any of the 4 cylinder cavalier circle track racers on here have found a solution to the wheel bearing problems since then. I race a 95' cavalier at several different dirt tracks, and find myself investing money in wheel bearings every couple of weeks. I have tried wheel bearings from 3 different autoparts stores, all of different qualities. My best wheel bearing I found last me 3 weeks (6 races) before it really started getting loose. This guy cost me almost $100. This is a very expensive problem and would like to find a solution. I have heard that there is a dodge caravan wheel bearing that will work, but was never told if it was a direct bolt on, or even what year of caravan they came off of. I would be interested in any ideas you have, and would even like to see pictures if anyone has tried doing a "Custom" job such as putting a trailer bearing in place of the oem cavy bearing.

If you all are not really formiliar with the problem, the bearing that I have go out the most is the Right Rear. Thanks for any help.

we only have bearing problems when we dont run enough camber. front or rear if we increase teh negative camber we are ok

Interesting.. So if I increased negative camber on the right rear it will save bearings and wont affect my cars handling? However, I am not a 100% sure this is the case for me, the dirt tracks I race at tend to get very rough surfaces as the night goes on as does the beating and banging, so i think a lot of my stuff gets worn out for that reason. Figured just a whole nother heavy duty bearing would do the trick. I could definately try the camber, but at the same time, would love to find some different bearings that would bolt up with little work and mabe hold up just a little bit longer then what im used to. I spend nearly $1000 in various wheel bearings last year. Now thats, a killer.

we run asphalt and there is so much side load on the bearings that without much negative camber it snaps teh bearing shaft and sends me spinning without a rr tire haha

My front bearings always end up dying because they can't handle the high loads of autocrossing with negative camber (-2 deg in my case). I've never had an issue with the rears though.

Yeah, I see a lot of cars get tore up each year due to wheel bearings. They can cause some pretty serious accidents in the dirt. The worst ones are when the front bearings break and cause the car to go flipping end over end. I hope I never have that problem. I try to keep a good eye on them and the minute I notice wobble, they immediatly get changed. Just wish i could find my solution to not having to change them as often. There are some guys who claim they never have to change them but wont give away their secrets, and theres others who stand there along with me shaking there head because theyve paid more money in wheel bearings in one year then they have in their engine!!

get the lifetime warranty ones and keep replacing them.















yes i know this wont work but i tried.

swap to N, W body Hubs.

Little Bigger and its what GM did back in the day for the L body cars for racing.


Chris




'02 Z-24 Supercharged
13.7 @102.45 MPH Third Place, 2007 GMSC Bash SOLD AS OF 01MAR08

TRY A CARAVAN BEARING LIKE 89 IT TAKES A NEW BRAKE LINE AND SOME MODS TO EXZISTING HOLES. THERE MORE LIKE A TRAILER BEARING AND HAVENT HAD ANY PROBLEMS YET.


bc97cavalier

we would goto the n body hubs but we cant get racing wheels in that bolt pattern, we ahve to run 13 inch

you can get N body hubs in a duel bolt pattern....


Chris




'02 Z-24 Supercharged
13.7 @102.45 MPH Third Place, 2007 GMSC Bash SOLD AS OF 01MAR08

When youall talk about N and W body hubs, what kind of cars are you talking about? Sorry, i am kinda new to this.. Wasnt sure if they would still have a 5x100 bolt pattern for factory wheels.

grand ams alero malibus are n body

Is there much work to swap them out? And do you think theyd be a bit stronger then a factory cavalier bearing? Im assuming that if I did do a wheel bearing N body swap, Id choose a hub from a 97 or previous year grand am so that the wheel bolt pattern stays the same?

98 and older n body had the 5 x 100, 99 + got 5 x 115.


Labrat

will the 98 and older wheel bearing fit the cavalier spindle?

Sorry, I got no info on fitment.


Labrat

I had the same problem on my stock car, which is listed in the classifieds.( 97 late Model stock car) I took a frt spindle , removed hub, and resurfaced it flat on the back (or if you can run camber on the rear put 1 1/2 degrees on it), eliminating ball joint and tie rod hook ups. You can also get rid of the caliper ears if you are not going to use back brakes, if you are, leave them on, and just put your rotor and caliper on and have 4 wheel dics. Weld it to your stock bearing mount ( it's a good idea to reinforce stock mount) You MUST take an axle spline, cut it 4 3/4 " from the end ( just at the end of the first step) stick it through and put the nut and washer on and torque to 165 LBS just as if it were on the Frt., to hold it together and preload the bearing. I have used them for 3 yrs with no problems. Ray

i belive the 98- n bodys are the same bearing as the cav the 98+ is diffrent but i dont think there is a way to retain the 5x100. i guess there is a bearing that is 5x115 and 5x110 dual drilled but no 5x100. the sticky in the suspension may be more help

RaymondSoos, got any pictures of this setup? Im pretty sure im following you on this, just kinda leary about welding another spindle on top of another spindle. Must have some serious offset im sure.







1994 Cavalier 2.2 5 Speed - Scrapped.
1994 Cavalier Z24 3.1 Auto - Enduro
1995 Cavalier 2.2 Auto - Figure 8

Hello I have a solution for the rr wheel bearings, I made a spindle for my 95 dirt car it uses tapered bearings that can be repacked has the 5 x 100 bolt pattern same as the stock and uses all the original brake components , no welding complete bolt on procedure , I field 3 j cars [ mu ti feature winners ] all are on the new spindles saving me hundreds of dollars a month , also have sold several and have had no failures , just have to repack occasionally

what are you torquing the hub nut down too?

the rear bearings have no hub nut

Bob Guptill wrote:the rear bearings have no hub nut

my bad I didn't read to well, thought your problem was with the front

Lannie can you show us some pics or instructions on how you fixed this problem. I'm building a 95 sunfire to run 3/8 and 1/2 mile dirt track, and i would like to do this mod before it becomes a problem.