Been watching this thread with interest. Thought I'd chime in. There's been some very good points discussed so far. But one thing I want to discuss is the bearings not being suitable for 3000+ pound cars on mustang II spindles versus mopar spindles.

lets look at these bearings. I see this brought up a lot, that mustang II bearings are smaller, so they are weaker, yet find it difficult to believe based on these numbers.

A body Mopar (73+) factory disc spindle wheel bearing sizes(note, the 73-74 B and E bodies use the same bearings):

Front inner bearing: 1.3772 in inner diameter, overall diameter is 2.362 in and width is .66 inches, static load bearing 10,700 lbs, dynamic load rating of 8800 lbs. thrust rating is 922 lbs

Front Outer bearing: .75o in inner diameter, overall diameter is 1.168, width is .655 in, static load bearing is 2120, dynamic load rating is 2680.

Mustang II:
Front inner bearing: 1.3775 in inner diameter, overall diameter is 2.328 and width is .625 in, static load bearing is 10700 lbs with the dynamic load rating of 8800 lbs per bearing..... the same as the mopar rating..... thrust rating, 917 pounds

Front Outer bearing: .861 in inner diameter, overall diameter is 1.7810, width is .458 in, static load bearing is 2160 pounds, dynamic load rating is 2670 pounds.


So lets recap, the load ratings are the same as the Mopar A body bearings for the inner bearing, the outer bearing, the Mustang II load bearing is HIGHER by 40 lbs but the Dynamic is lower by just 10 lbs. now that's per bearing. and a 5 pound thrust rating difference. That's not a huge difference at at all ether way. The only advantage I can see the Mopar having is that since it is a tad wider than the Mustang II bearing, is load surface, which translates into slightly better heat dissipation. But just how much heat dissipation difference can there be with a bearing width difference of .04 inches, that's less than a 1/16 of an inch

Mustang II spindles are used throughout the aftermarket and some aftermarket kits use even bigger bearings that fit on the Mustang II spindles. See Ron Sutton and Wilwood for example. Sutton sells brake kits for pro touring that use bearings with almost double the load ratings for mustang II spindles. Wilwood just uses wider and bigger bearings in their kits, especially their larger brake kits.

Bottomline, there's not a lot of strength differences, or differences in general, between the 2. Besides, most of these aftermarket kits are running forged mustang spindles that are improved over the 73-78 mustang IIs OEM ones. I know the spindles I have are wilwood pro and they are certified by SCCA and others for racing. The only thing I can say really is that if you are experiencing a heat issue and heat caused wear, keep extra bearings with you or get one of those kits with the longer/stronger bearings in the hubs. Really, as cheap as bearings are, I'd do that regardless of spindle or bearing type or size. And if you're going to be racing, probably should check those routinely anyway. If you wanna be sure about it.


***Disclaimer***. These numbers came directly from the bearing manufacturers. In this case, Federal Mogul and Timken, both display the same numbers


As for the watts link, I should have mine installed shortly. I'll get pics for you dusterpt440