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I thought there was some commonality to the shapes of those pieces - sure do look like remenants of bearing cages. Some of the early extreme pressure (EP) gear oils attacking yellow metal is a well-known story to most old timers. Packard did specify particular vendors and grades of some lubricants but at least in the early years of the Angleset rear I believe they always said to use "a Packard approved gear oil" or something to that effect and never mentioned a particular brand or grade. Some of the earlier EP gear oils used sulfo-chloro-phosphorus compounds as EP additives, the breakdown products of which attacked yellow metals like brass, copper and bronze. I don't think this is a valid concern anymore with today's EP gear oils.

I did pull my spare 34 Angleset partially apart tonight, the roller and ball bearings all have steel cages - don't know when that changeover took place though I suspect those bearings are original to the unit.

I don't change my transmission and differential gear oil twice annually as Packard recommended, primarily because I don't use the car much in cold weather, and of course the limited number of miles it's driven. I've been using Valvoline SAE85-140 EP gear oil for about 45 years in the trans, differential and steering gear w/o any problems.

I did go down and take a look inside my spare Angelset rear and though I didn't take it apart....

Tom,

Hope you don't mind borrowing your pictures. I didn't have a good shot of the rear.....let me re-phrase that.....I didn't have any good pictures of the differential, so I paid a visit to the Packard Paddock.

The cage on the rear pinion bearing looks like it could be the source of some of your pieces. Although the early gears oils attacked brass it is unusual to have one completely disintegrate.

If you do replace the bearings I previously submitted a post with a modern cross reference to some of the bearings used in the differential.

PM me if you have trouble finding it.

You may want to get some prussian blue at good auto store or art supply. NAPA carried this recently. If you've set up gear sets before you'll know what this is for.

If not you may want to do some research on the topic. The carrier may have a shim pack to set the pinion to ring gear mesh. I stamped some out of .002 to add to the ones that were there when I replaced the bearings and seals.

Regards,

Dave

Dear All,

And the winner is....Dave (32model901)! We took apart the differential today, and the main pinion bearing cages were completely disintegrated. They were brass, and they were in little chunks.

I don't think it was the gear oil, as the front pinion bearing, with it's brass cage, seems fine. I would think it would have disintegrated as well.

So, any other ideas on why it might have gone to bits?

Given the numerous bits of brass that were floating around, I am going to replace all the bearings, assuming I can find them. Thanks Dave for putting in those x-refs.

Also, I don't care if folks use the pictures, as long as they are used for non-commericial purposes.

Attached below are some photos of the bearing, sans cage.

Tom

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Tom,

Glad you found the problem, before it caused damage to the gear set.

Some of the bearings you need are on Ebay now, just f.y.i.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=fafnir+%2B+5308W&_sacat=0&_odkw=5305K&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=5305K&_sacat=0&_odkw=5308W&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=timken+%2B+3720&_sacat=0&_odkw=timken+%2B+377&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

Regards,

Dave

Dear All,

I have found replacement bearings for:

Differential bearing assembly bearings (conical rolling, Timken 366)
Front Pinion Bearing (SKF 6908) (Thanks Dave!)

Unfortunately, I cannot find a replacement bearing for the front pinion bearing, SKF I-70268 (OD: 55.6 mm, ID: 23 mm, W: 22 mm). The rear pinion bearing Dave has listed has an OD of 62 mm and an ID of 25 mm. It would seem the 901 and the 900 had a different rear pinion arrangement.

Does anyone know of a bearing that will work?

I took apart the differential gear, and removed the ring gear. I am very glad I did, as there were a ton of brass shavings under the ring gear (see first photo).

In cleaning up the gears, I noticed that one of the differential planet gears had a large scar on the inner bore (second photo). It looks very clean, with straight, but not parallel, edges. It does not look like the sort of scoring one might see from over heating or sharp debris. Does anyone have any theories?

Lastly, upon reassembly of the differential gear housing, the gears would no longer turn. Is it possible that I applied to much torque to the inner housing nuts (third photo)?

Thanks tons, as usual, for your help!

Tom

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Tom,

I've attached some info on the closest size double row bearings I found. The search parameters I used was for a bearing I.D., Bore, and Width equal to or less than the size you need.

If you can't find the exact size, having some precision machined and ground sleeves and spacers made up out of a good quality steel (AISI 4140, 4340, etc.) would allow you to retrofit one of the sizes shown into the pinion carrier housing. If you use sleeves I'd use a permanent thread lock compound such as Locktite 271 to bond the sleeves to the bearing I.D. and O.D.

One of the links on the .pdg is to FAG / INA bearings, they have a good WEB based search tool for bearings.

Regards,

Dave

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Have you tried Olcar Bearing? George rarely fails at finding such bearings and it would eliminate the need to modify. I've dealt with George many times on obscure bearings and seals - and he's a delight to deal with, no one fairer or nicer to deal with.

George Bachleda
OlCar Bearing Company
Southern Pines, NC
910-693-3324

It's a long shot, as far as being a direct replacement, but there is a new pinion bearing for a 34-35 Pierce on Ebay now, it's only $8.

An email to the seller to have them give you the size would be a start.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FRONT-REAR-AXLE-PINION-BEARING-1934-35-PIERCE-ARROW-/370496222009?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item56434bb339