Originally Posted by
Road Fan
The kind of race wear that's a problem is when the case hardened layer is flaking off, leaving pits behind. Essentially once it starts it's a path toward total failure. By the time it really feels bad it's toast. Continued use leads to more flaking with the resulting debris accelerating the process. It can even lock up.
Somewhat correct. The real issue is material fatigue, which in a rolling bearing application initiates below the surface. As the fatigue cracks propogate to the surface, flaking ensues.
AFAIK, these type of bearings are not intended to be refurbished at this point, due to the large loss of material. It is doubtful that the parent component was designed with enough excess material to permit a renewing of the bearing surface, once fatigue has occurred and a significant layer of material is lost or necessarily condemned and removed. That said, it is not out of the question to refurbish as outlined by
Road Fan below, if replacement is not an option. After re-hardening (by someone knowledgable about applicable hardening methods and sufficiently informed about or able to ascertain the specific metallurgy of the material in question), subsequent steps of grinding and polishing to net shape & surface finish are required.
Originally Posted by
Road Fan
Such a surface needs to be ground down to below the layer of the old case hardining, reshaped properly, then re-hardened.