Sperical roller bearing switchout to ball bearings??

[wrwtexan]

My Kershaw 10-10 forestry mulcher went down yesterday after the rear axle had several bearings go out due to low oil. It is a Ford 5000 rear end with a hydraulic motor driving it though a spur gear reduction plate. I have to replace the pinion bearings, and two sperical roller bearings on the motor shaft on either side of the drive gear. They (motor shaft and bearings) slip into a heavy adapter and support plate bolted onto the front of the housing. As these type bearings are a bit more pricey than ball bearings, if I can match ID/OD and width dimensions, can a ball bearing take its place or is there a reason I'm not seeing for using the sperical (alignment)? Its an early 80's machine so I'm not concerned about doing some mods if they would be an acceptable alternative.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Just be sure & check endplay after replacing them.. In a Simms injection pump, they went from ball bearings to tapered roller bearings on the cam shaft & the end play is way off.. & needs to be reset EVERY TIME.. you replace/update the bearings..
I would "assume" that'll be the case in your situation too..??

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .

Dunno wrwtexan

I reckon you are right about the alignment issue. Also as thepumpguysc mentions . . . thrust.

The main application for sphericals I can remember is the the outboard final drive bearing on certain crawlers . . . I know Allis Chalmers used them and I'm unsure now on Cat.

I always assumed the spherical was there to allow a bit of tolerance for wear in the diagonal brace bushings.

There were two types as I remember. In one, the individual roller elements were concave like a dumb-bell. In the other type they were shaped like little barrels, the barrel type seemed best.

I would imagine a spherical of a given size would be much better at handling slight misalignment, radial and thrust loads than (say) an equivalent double ball race.

Of course what I speak of is a very low speed application. Here again I am talking way out of my knowledge zone and I'm sure some more qualified folks will chip in with some more definitive suggestions.

All the best with the fix.

Cheers.

 

[Tones]

For what I have been told spherical roller bearing can take more vibration, more misalignment etc. Your mulcher rotor will have spherical bearings.Sometimes using the best is the cheapest.

 

[wrwtexan]

May have to resize them ?? but the first is the end plate and reduction set and the second is the motor shaft, gear and inner races.
I also have no idea how to get everything off the shaft. There is no snap ring or anything I can see holding it all together???

 

[wrwtexan]

A moderator or someone might post how to resize pics on here as one of mine was recently. I would post more but they come up as these tiny images...

 

[Tinkerer]

A moderator or someone might post how to resize pics on here as one of mine was recently. I would post more but they come up as these tiny images...

When you uploaded the pictures did you chose full size image or thumbnails ?

 

[Jonas302]

Most likely a press fit to the shaft as far as changing them it would have to be thousands cheaper and or unobtainable to even consider reengineering

 

[Scrub Puller]

xxxx

 

[Birken Vogt]

A moderator or someone might post how to resize pics on here as one of mine was recently. I would post more but they come up as these tiny images...

Shoot, with pictures like that I bet we can see it better than you can in person....

I find that taking pictures of machines with my phone I often can see things zoomed in on the computer screen better than my eyes in person...unfortunately whatever I want to look at is usually just outside the frame....

 

[lantraxco]

typically sphericals are used because: A) the structure is prone to warping, bending, flexing, or expansion due to heat. or B) The manufacturer could not be bothered to build a solid structure and line bore everything so the shafts were in a straight line. Typically both. My guess is ball bearings with no allowance for misalignment will be damn short lived, YMMV

 

[wrwtexan]

To all, thanks and I'll be going back with original.
Regarding the pic uploads, I'll upload some others and see what I'm doing.