Then the TTX are a bargain


Mevotech TTX heavy duty

Timken and AC Delco. Standard replacement!

 

Here is the GM prices from 2015

 

I'm about convinced to pull-a-trigger on a -single-(for now, I've got a noisy rear bearing immediately) Timken rear axle bearing to cure a sick rear (not certain WHICH side -yet-, but I know there's one lurking back there).
Hopefully, nothing else interrupts a complete bearings (Timken ALL) swap out before I submit it to the alignment shop (around month's end).
You guys convinced me to feed it high end, every time it's mattered so far. So, thanks again !

 

For the rears you will need a wobbly socket and/or a u-joint. You have to navigate through the spring to get to the nuts, not a straight shot. The alternative is to remove the shocks and springs.

 

Being as I am from the -original- Timken bearings & specialty steels home (Canton, Ohio) I am finding it sort of hard to accept that 'authentic' Timken branded & original packaging automotive hub/bearing/sensor assemblies are now sourced in China (?).
Would someone with more -current- experience in purchasing Timken branded & packaged parts inform me if I'm being hoodwinked, or if this is now the sad state of affairs.

 

I purchased Timken for Oldblue several years ago , made in China, I was so disappointed, they lasted 50,000 miles, the left front failed first.

 

Would I be mistaken that rears -might-have a better life span (unless subjected to unnecessary/excessive loading)?
That double-wide(?) bearing looks pretty tough, but the ABS-electronics/sensor aspect could be the wild card?
I think my brother's bragging about how he 'loaded the back end clear full' of bags of mulch at one time or another didn't make the -noisy bearing- I'm hearing now last any longer.

 

As to my original post, if I were to 'freshen up' that exposed wiring pigtail leading to the speed sensor, the genuine GM replacement pigtail is -only- seven inches long. Does that seem like sufficient length to get a replacement and resultant splice point outside the neighborhood of being vulnerable?
I was floored by pricing for a Standard Motor Products end-to-end replacement that went completely through the body piercing (grommets, anchors & every thing!) which terminated in the main wiring harness (about $175 ea.@ R.A. !) Yikes.
Or, would the earliest suggestion of just sliding lengths of that corrugated plastic sheathing over the existing wires be sufficient?
My half-ass inspection didn't lead me to suspect original insulation damage (bare/broken circuits), just maybe , that the protective (rubbery) loom that GM graced those pair of wires hanging in the breeze was falling apart and -looking- like things -might be- worse than they actually are (?)
The trio of grommets isolating each of those wires from the metal bracket are about as ridiculously priced as anything I've ever seen ! (If I'm not mistaken, a bag with three grommets was commanding like $28).

 

The HHR wire harness is obsolete, I used a Cobalt harness and had to change the body end of the harness connector. This was because the scan tool told me the code was for the left front and harness.
after all that and reassembly it was the left front hub had internal wire damage.

 

When I look closely at the -specification- table supplied with the Timken bearing/hub (rear -anyhow-) there is a line item indicating that current production has evolved to a 'third (3rd) generation type' of product.
Anyone willing to speculate as to what -THAT- might mean?
A downward spiral leading to further cheap-dom?
Hard to imagine that (successive -generations-) would actually equate to a higher quality (better outcome) end product.
When I've been able to see photographs of NOS (STILL-China, but older production that -might have- sat on a parts store shelf for a good long while(?) ) versus the most-recent production illustrations of parts that are rapidly being purchased & installed. The illustrations seem to point toward the earlier production looking to have a good bit more obvious machining, but the very latest stuff looks rougher (lots of raw casting looking on (unimportant (?) ) areas over all.
I'll have one of those NOS parts arriving later this week, and found another just like it. So if initial inspection convinces me of part worthy of the brand, I'll get another just like it to outfit the rear beam entirely.
I just might look elsewhere for a pair of fronts, since they seem more prone to high stress because of the more compact engineering required and the steering loadings that the front bearing are subjected to. I hate replacing parts multiple times if those applications are better served by high(er)-end choices.