Zulfigar,

I agree that with experience a person could learn to do the procedure the way you've described. Wish I had this experience but I don't. Only have one car to work on and this is the first time I've attempted the wheel bearing adjustment. It is my daily driver and when we make a trip together we will take my car instead of wife's 2017 Prius due to the Mercedes better ride and less noise. Wish I could add the safety features to mine.

I simply want to do it right and don't want a wheel bearing to fail because I could have done it better. Your way is guesswork on my part.

I felt how difficult the hub was to turn before I removed it. It was actually fairly difficult to turn, like the grease was silly putty. I thought it would show damage when removed. I forgot to feel the other side, should have done that.

My concern now is how to properly seat the hub to get the proper starting point to using a tool or method to better set the bearing.

For future safety I plan to order a new set of quality bearings from an old bearing company in Dallas along with a high quality seals. Then do the procedure all over again. I fear I might have damaged the driver side bearings by trying to duplicate the ' difficult to turn ' feel I experienced before removing the hub.

Got notice from Amazon the gauge and stand might arrive today. Should be 50 degrees tomorrow. Hopefully can try it out then.

If my entries were correct for an internet calculator, the distance to move a one foot pointer connected to the spindle nut is:

For a properly fully seated hub and with the spindle nut turned til ' snug ' against the washer for the outer bearing. A one foot pointer attached to the spindle nut should move:

Minimum, of .753982 inches or not less than 3/4 inches from snug
Maximum, of 1.507964 inches or not much more than 1.5 inches from snug

Midpoint of the range would be 1.130973 inches or between 1.1 and 1.2 inches from the snug nut position.

I plan to attach a 1 foot pointer magnetically to the spindle nut, ignore the slight offset from center of spindle and try to check the hub movement with the new gauge that hopefully will be delivered today.

I actually think this will be more accurate than the gauge since the setting is simply based on the thread pitch and degrees of rotation. Much less chance of wrong setting due to gauge not reading properly or not setup properly.

The only difference with the front wheel bearings in my 1960's Chrysler cars is that M-B uses a clamp nut instead of a castle nut w/ cotter pin. I replaced at least one wheel bearing. If the race ("cup") is fine, you can leave it in, though I recall replacing them. I tightened the same as my Mopars. Tighten w/ wrench while spinning the rotor, firmly but not real tight, back off then go in finger-tight on the nut (not turning the rotor), then back off 1 slot on the castle-nut (imagine your M-B has one, say 1/8 turn) and secure. If you overtighten, you will know after a few miles of driving when your hub smokes. Can probably find youtubes on packing a bearing. There are funky holders to use w/ a grease gun, but most use their hands. Pack it in well and use bearing grease "for disks". Moly type is best. Also change the inner seal if you can. My 1984-85 300D use SET3 and SET5 bearing sets (National A3 & A5), as I recall, which are also used on old Chevy pickups. Buy German bearings if you can. I think all bearings are metric, which is why the numbers are uneven when expressed in English units.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

Just received and opened new wheel bearing kits from Mercedes. Both new bearings are NTN Japan, same brand as original. Hard to read part numbers even new and without grease. I think one is a different part # from original. Will try to find a magnifying glass to read. Photo enlargement didn't work to reliably read the number. But it looks like:

4T-LM11949VI and 4T-LM11910 one bearing and cone

4T-LM67010PX6 and 4T-LM67048V2 other bearing and cone

Will try to verify these. 3,6,8,9 would look similar with the tiny engraved part number on the bearing. Would help if they didn't curve the ends of any 3, 6, and 9's.

If I was going to do this by feel, I would use the method of checking the 3/three sided washer for movement. I believe this would be the closest method to using the dial gauge.

Hand tighten the spindle nut and turn the hub. This is to spread the grease and reduce thickness of excess grease.

Then with either a flat blade screwdriver, parallel with the spindle, tighten while turning the hub. Checking frequently to see if 3/three sided washer is still able to be moved without much pressure from the screw driver.

Stop tightening when the washer and/or hub is getting fairly difficult to move. Back off a smidge til the washer is moveable without much effort. Then lock down the spindle nut.

Remove the plastic star from the wheel center to allow checking the hub temperature by feel. Just to verify the adjustment isn't too tight.

Also after installing the wheels, check for too loose, by doing the wheel waggle method.
Doubtful if much/any movement will be felt

While using the dial gauge and checking again about 30 minutes later, I believe the afternoon sun warmed up the dark hub and slightly changed the movement due to metal expansion. The other side, in the shade, stayed virtually the same.

Any thoughts to benefit of installing grease zert into center of hub's cap? It seems this would allow couple of squirts of grease to be added every ten thousand miles or so. So far I can't think of any downside to doing this and the faster wearing outer bearing would get a smidge of new grease in between normal bearing repacking.

The cup (race) and cone (rollers) are separate PN's for tapered roller bearings. Some common combinations are sold as a set. Per rock, my memory was correct for my cars (1982-85 W123).
Front outer: Timken SET3, which is LM12610 (cup) & LM12649 (cone)
Front inner: Timken SET5, which is LM48510 (cup) & LM48548 (cone)
For National, change the sets to A3 & A5, but same individual numbers, as most/all use. I see many Timken bearings have "Made in China".
Of course, your 1995 is likely different (above).

Few tapered roller bearings come as a set. If working on say a transmission or differential, you may need to buy the cone and cup separately. The PN's are stamped on the old parts, and yes they can be hard to read, especially with the blocky fonts used. Often you wonder if it is say a "6" or an "8" which wasn't fully stamped.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

From what I have seen all of the major named branded bearing companies have at least 3 grades of bearings. The PRC and India are the lowest grades so far.

The company SKF seems to have bearings made everywhere. The PRC, Italy, East Europe as well as France and Germany. I also remember seeing Argentina and Brazil.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

There seems to be a big problem with low quality counterfeit bearings being sold as name brand bearings. Best to buy from reliable source.

https://www.bearing-news.com/how-to-identify-and-avoid-buying-fake-nsk-bearings/

Each set of Mercedes brand bearings was close to $65. For something that will last for more than a 100,000 miles that is a fairly low price and should be able to be trusted.

As mentioned previously I've watched numerous videos on how to do the front wheel bearings on Mercedes similar to my 95 E300D W124.

I can't recall any of them doing every step ' properly ', even ones from professional shops.

Quite often it was how the grease was applied, including lack of grease for the seal.

I'm going to play around with using an inch pound torque wrench at various settings and then test with a dial gauge.

I searched for precision solid lubricant washers that might wear to proper setting. Couldn't find anything applicable but seems like a good idea.

Finally thought of ordering some precision wire close to .006 inches and forming a W shape to go between the 3 sided washer and the spindle nut and then torqueing it to one of the inch pound settings from my trial settings. Backing off the spindle nut just enough to remove the wire and then checking with the dial gauge.

Plan to do that when it warms up enough and I've completed the other preventative maintenance tasks.

Plus will be adding grease zerts to both caps. so the outside bearings can get a smidge of grease periodically. Hopefully the caps won't have to be pinned to stay in place.

I would advise against this. Would be easy to overload it in my opinion.

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Jim

As I recall the Mercedes instructions for my car, they said to fill the grease caps 2/3 full of grease to feed the outside bearing, after packing the bearing before installing it of course. The washer shape is to allow grease to go by it.

Tightening tapered roller bearings is a two step process. Tighten too tight while spinning the wheel to seat the races. When the wheel stops, loosen the nut and tighten it finger tight. Check for a small amount of end play with the dial indicator. Use fingers to adjust if necessary and don't forget to lock the nut.

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'97 E 300 D

It's important to not fill the hub cavity nor the grease cap as the dead air helps cool the beings .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

When I use a dial indicator to set bearing preload, I cannot "feel" any movement. So that leaves me wondering how it's possible to set the MB-specified preload by "feel."
I am pretty convinced that anyone setting bearing preload by feel is just stabbing in the dark. For sure, anyone who can come close to dial indicator precision by feel is a highly skilled individual. Personally, I am quite sure that matching dial indicator precision by feel on a repeatable basis is not possible. And I suspect that anyone who has actually used a dial indicator would agree.

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

The "American way" is not to try to feel the play in the wheel bearings (as you attempt with a dial gage), but rather to hand-tighten the nut to "zero play", then back-off the nut ~1/8 turn. That is after first tightening the nut fairly tight while spinning the wheel, to squeeze out all grease for metal-metal contact, then loosen, then adjust as above. Since my M-B use the same wheel bearings as a Chevy pickup, I don't know why that wouldn't work the same, as the bearings don't know whether they are in a Chevy or M-B. Too-tight is much worse than too-loose as it can cause the bearings to overheat, then thermally expand to bind more until the grease melts and smokes. If that doesn't happen after a few miles of driving, you should be OK for 200K miles.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

I have come across a lot of people assuming taper bearings are supposed to be "loose" on the wheels. Its really strange to be honest, because those same people would have no problem in setting the preload (literal zero play and then some) on a rear end pinion.

The bearings are to tightened as required, Some people have developed the knack for it by hand, but as these bearings are not used in many cars now, this knack is hard to develop unless you are working on older cars only. So its a very good idea to invest in a dial gauge or get someone to teach you how to set the bearings.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)