1969 PA-30C Wheel Bearings

[Frank Brunot]

Ran into a strange problem today .. hope someone can help.

It was time for new brake pads, and decided to also change the wheel bearings, as it was a deferred item at the last annual (4 months ago).

I put the new bearing cups and tapered roller bearings in the wheel, and found the wheel would NOT go back on the axle. After 30 minutes of scratching my head, I tried fitting a new tapered roller bearing, by itself, onto the axle. It would NOT go beyond the threads at the end of the axle! This is the book specified Timken bearing (P/N 13889).

I measured the ID of the bearing, and it is EXACTLY 1.500 inches. But when I measured the axle diameter, it was 1.502 inches!

How can the axle GROW in diameter? And how do I get the axle diameter back to 1.500 so that the bearing will fit?

I'm going to measure the ID of the old roller bearings tomorrow.