[olddog]

When my Chinese wheel bearing failed in my 9" ford with about 10,000 miles on them, I purchased Timkens. When I opened the box, the exact same Chinese bearing was in it. I thought the parts store swapped them somehow. I called Timken and they said that was the correct bearing. I told them that one failed in 10K miles. He said Timken does not sell enough of these bearing to justify making their own so they outsource that bearing. They said that is the only source in the world still making that bearing, as far as they know.

A friend told me his nephew was replacing a Chinese bearing in his 4 wheeler ever 6 months. So he pulled the dust seals, on a new bearing, and the grease in it was terrible. The Bearing appeared well made. He flushed it and packed it with good grease. It had been 2 years at that point, with no failure.

So we did the same thing with my 9" wheel bearings. The grease that was in them stunk like road kill and was thinner than vaseline. Getting the dust seals off and on without damaging them is difficult. He used some picks that looked like dental tools.

That was about 10 years ago. No idea if new bearings today have the same nasty grease in them or not. Likely do, IMHO. If it were me I would pull the dust seals and give them a look.

PS
Practice on the old bearings, and also note what the grease is like in them.