drmini in aust wrote:
I bought 4 new upper arm bearings from a Mini parts shop this week. I thought in the back of my mind that they looked a little odd.
Had a look at the originals today and I was right-
Originals are a `full complement' needle bearing- the case is full of rollers. NO cage.
New ones are caged- I reckon the number of rollers is halved.
Caged bearings are always inferior is static load capacity due to less rollers, and IMO this will also contribute to the early demise of current available shafts.
Given that the upper arm bearings are basically under static not dynamic loading, I will attempt to source some full complement ones from my friendly local bearing supplier.
ps. I have seen this problem before (on low speed bearings) in the industrial gearbox industry.
pps. I'm using the old shafts as they are unmarked after 40+ years.
GT mowog wrote:
The bearing in your first pic is correct as it has no cage. Remember, this is a low speed, high load application, so we want maximum bearing surface area / contact.
The one in the lower pic, with the cage, is dimensionally the same, but for high speed, low(er) load applications, usually bathed in oil, like the idler gear in the early gearboxes.
I have noticed some kits are now being suppied with the wrong bearings (idler gear bearings) and...........
