Patent ID: 8221004

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a wheel support bearing assembly comprising an outer member having an inner periphery formed with a plurality of rows of raceway surfaces defined therein; an inner member having an outer periphery formed with raceway surfaces opposed to the raceway surfaces and made up of an hub unit and an inner ring, the hub unit having a wheel mounting flange formed on an outer periphery thereof and also having a center bore defined in a center portion thereof, the inner ring being mounted on an inner ring mounting area of a stepped configuration that is defined in an inboard side of an outer periphery of the hub unit; and a plurality of rows of rolling elements interposed between those opposed raceway surfaces; the rows of the raceway surfaces being defined in the hub unit and the inner ring, respectively, the inner ring having an inboard end provided at an inner peripheral edge thereof with an annular stepped area, the hub unit having an inboard end portion provided with a crimped portion engageable with an axially oriented inclined face of the stepped area of the inner ring, the method comprising: forming the crimped portion by driving a crimping punch into an inner periphery of a plastically deformable portion of the inboard end portion of the hub unit from an inboard side thereof such that the plastically deformable portion is crimped to assume a diametrically expanded state, the plastically deformable portion being of a cylindrical shape prior to a crimping process; and regulating, during the driving-in of the crimping punch, the amount of radially outward augmentation of the crimped portion by measuring the amount of change in an inner diameter of an inboard end of the plastically deformable portion and setting the amount of change to a value within a preset range.