Have any of you ever experienced what I would describe as noisy wheel bearings with new wheels and bearings?
I swapped out the original Matco for Grove wheels and brakes before first taxi tests. The new bearings that were shipped with the Grove wheels were correctly cleaned, greased and installed with my A&P hangar mate looking over my shoulder. Axle nuts tightened correctly. After 1st short low speed taxi 7kts max, and with the plane back up on jacks, all was normal and when rotating the wheels by hand, they were quiet. 2nd taxi was conducted over roughly 4000ft and up to a speed approaching 45kts and I could hear 'something', and it would change as speed varied. As I pulled 4ZQ back into the hangar, I could again hear what was a very low but audible whirring sound as the main wheels rotated. With the plane on jacks again, this sound was evident when rotating each main by hand, the nose was quiet.
Together, we removed each main and carefully inspected the bearing races which were smooth. The bearings were also closely inspected, but not cleaned of grease and repacked.
The 'something/whirring' sound is still evident. I've replaced and packed a few bearings in my time but have never experienced this sound. What are the odds of 4 new bearings being defective? Is a sound such as I have described, evidence of a defective bearing? Or just the new bearings making friends with their respective races? By the way, the brakes work well, the brake rotors are smooth and the calipers slide smoothly on their pins. I'll be calling Grove on the west coast in a few hours but would also like to hear from the LML bearing experts.

Angier Ames
N4ZQ
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