Economy Bearing Repair

[sudsmaster]

I have an older hydraulic floor jack, the kind that is fairly large - 3 ton capacity. I got it out to lift up the old Plymouth to lube the front end, and discovered that one of the swivel wheels was binding. On closer inspection it seemed that all but one of the loose bearing balls had fallen out, and the wheel was tilting away from wherever that one ball might happen to be resting.

I had two choices: take the remaining bearing ball to the hardware store and try to find ten more replacement balls, or see if I had some in my workshop.

I couldn't find any loose bearings of the right size. But I knew that the previous owner had collected old sealed bearings. I selected a couple that might contain the right size balls, and used an air driven cutoff wheel to slice through the outer race, and then an offset wire cutter ("dykes") to snip the retaining carriage to free the balls. After slicing open three old sealed bearings I had enough balls to retrofit the floor jack wheel. It turns out they are slightly smaller than stock but they seem to be doing the job just fine anyway.

Although new loose bearings wouldn't have cost all that much, it was kind of satisfying to be able to make do with what was at hand.

 

[dnastrau]

Good job!

Nice Job Rich! It is always good to hear when a tool like that is kept in service instead of ending up on the scrap heap.

Andrew S.

 

[panthera]

Yay!

Good for you, Rich!
That's the spirit! Always better to play with the balls you know than to go searching for new ones...who knows where they've been!