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Are rubber sealed bearings a worthwhile upgrade for my cutting reel....?

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andy 7671 Fri, 15/08/2014

Replacing bearings in my Commodore 17 and was wondering whether a factory fitted rubber seal would be beneficial.

Maybe my bearings were never cleaned and natural degradation of felt washers and lack of lubrication over 30 years is influencing my thoughts.

Anyone got any opinions..?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Forums

hortimech Fri, 15/08/2014

we always used to replace the standard bearings with metal shielded bearings, seem to remember NLJ1/2 ZZ being the bearing to use.

 

wristpin Fri, 15/08/2014

As Hortimech says , no prob with using steel sealed bearings or for that matter rubber. Same sizing, different brand RLS4 2RS, or RLS4 2Z. I would tend to favour the rubber sealed bearings as they are a bit more water resistant than the steels and you should retain the Atco plastic seals etc to maintain correct spacing and provide the "mechanical" protection.

The days of OEMs using quality bearings such as SKF, RHP and Torrington etc seem to be gone and even if they are obtainable from bearing factors they are prohibitively expensive for the application. The majority of bearings on offer from factors seem to be of Chinese or Far Eastern manufacture and I have found a lot of them to be a bit short of grease so its not a bad idea to pop a seal out and add some more clean high melting point grease and then press the seal back in.  However don't fill more than two thirds of the diameter.

 

hillsider Fri, 15/08/2014

Along with all of the good information given so far can I add a couple of points that I have learned over the years.

Use a branded bearing, I was once supplied with unbranded bearings of Chinese origin that had enough lift in them when assembled to allow the cutting cylinder to float,  preventing any sensible adjustment.

Sealed for life - how long that is depends on how much grease is put in the bearing when the seal is fitted. I think someone has said that you can carefully pop a seal out to check this if you are very careful. Some bearing suppliers used to supply seals separately for the reason that you could replace damaged ones or replenish the grease. 

I would recommend using the rubber sealed type for reason of them being more resistant to the acids in grass juices that in my experience will rot out metal shields fairly quickly.

ok that's three points but who's counting and hopefully I have not entirely repeated other advice already given.