Can This Bearing Race Be Saved?

[Spindle]

Just received this bearing race and need to know if it can be finished in a way that it will make it usable. It's for a 1941 Harley Davidson transmission roller bearing, ID @ 1.125, needles .152 x .625.

For those unfamiliar with the antique motorcycle reproduction parts market, the production volumes are so low quality is virtually non existent. Receiving a part that's even good enough to finish or re-work is often as good as it gets.

The only new races I've worked with are automotive wheel bearings and they definitely didn't look like this, so please let me know what can be done.

[A.K. Boomer]

It's pretty course and nasty looking - but that's just keeping up with harley standards so I seriously don't see a problem,,,

they routinely build stuff like this - and believe it or not it will "break in" fast as it knocks down the hills and the existing valleys will still be there for "oil retention"

it will work - and precision does not matter - again - it's a harley and it will not know any difference. their crap anyways - and why would you want to (excuse the expression) "put lipstick on a hog"

[754]

Did you try checking fit before installing the race? The rods and some of the other bearings are fitted with the bearing lap.
I don't know how bad the old race is, but they can be lapped to fit oversize rollers.
they come in .0002 thousandth increments.

[Spindle]

754,
Haven't installed the race yet, I need to determine if it's usable first. According to some bearing mfg sites races of this type should have a surface finish of @ 8µin, but I don't know what type of hone is used to achieve this or what it would look like.
I do have several sources for the roller sets, but need to get this to final ID before ordering. There are 4 roller sets of various diameters in this transmission with fit specified @ .0008.

[nickel-city-fab]

Might want to check with Andrews transmissions on that one, I'd be surprised if they don't have an actual replacement that doesn't look a *lot* better than that. Since they basically own the aftermarket for harley transmissions. https://www.andrewsproducts.com/

[nickel-city-fab]

It's pretty course and nasty looking - but that's just keeping up with harley standards so I seriously don't see a problem,,,

they routinely build stuff like this - and believe it or not it will "break in" fast as it knocks down the hills and the existing valleys will still be there for "oil retention"

it will work - and precision does not matter - again - it's a harley and it will not know any difference. their crap anyways - and why would you want to (excuse the expression) "put lipstick on a hog"

Um, no they don't, Harley has been holding micron tolerances via CNC production since the 1980's. You might want to update your rant so you don't look so foolish. As for myself, I'll never pay good money for a jap bike.

[A.K. Boomer]

Um, no they don't, Harley has been holding micron tolerances via CNC production since the 1980's. You might want to update your rant so you don't look so foolish. As for myself, I'll never pay good money for a jap bike.

lol that's a joke - their the crudest piles of crap on the planet --- ran a MC service department for years and nothing even comes close --- give one a rev and watch everything vibrate out of control, foot pegs with 1/2" of slop --- clutch and brake levers with almost as much and lets not even talk about their mirrors that are about totally useless throughout the RPM range.... crude low powered oil leaking noisy junk.....

[754]

Yeah well we already know your view..
I ride an Japanese bike and am coming up on the 1/2 century mark of doing so....but I don't walk around with blinders on or spreading hate or spewing crap.
There is a lot of Japan stuff I don't like and I also like a lot of Harley stuff and work on them sometimes. And I have buddies that have set records at Bonneville on Harleys and Japanese bikes, and I have helped out in the pits.. iknow folks that own some of each andvrace them as well, and those are the ones I prefer to hang around with.
BUT BY All means continue on your path, it defines what you are..

a

[754]

Back to topic , bushings come 2 ways , already sized which can be a crap shoot if the case or shaft is worn, or need to be fitted once installed. I suspect the OP has the latter. I will dig up a pic of the lapping tools, designed to fit with proper surface finish to tight tolerances.

[JRouche]

Just received this bearing race and need to know if it can be finished in a way that it will make it usable. It's for a 1941 Harley Davidson transmission roller bearing, ID @ 1.125, needles .152 x .625.

Til You Mic it out its hard to say. I would start there. Looks like there might be some metal still to play with. JR

I dont do much with the internals without a mic and log book. JR

[754]

If you have the old bearing rollers, grease them , install on shaft, try the race in your hand , if it fits tight it will lap in , after bearing is pressed in case.
if it's a bit loose you can get oversize rollers.

[A.K. Boomer]

Yeah well we already know your view..
I ride an Japanese bike and am coming up on the 1/2 century mark of doing so....but I don't walk around with blinders on or spreading hate or spewing crap.
There is a lot of Japan stuff I don't like and I also like a lot of Harley stuff and work on them sometimes. And I have buddies that have set records at Bonneville on Harleys and Japanese bikes, and I have helped out in the pits.. iknow folks that own some of each andvrace them as well, and those are the ones I prefer to hang around with.
BUT BY All means continue on your path, it defines what you are..

a

Your right im sorry I got a little carried away in my reply to his statement because its hard to convince me that underneath all the poor fitting bad designed sloppy exterior parts there's going to be some kinda "jewel" of an engine underneath, that's not how the real world works...

The bearing race will be just fine, it's got crude cross-hatch but again the bike won't know the difference,,,

if anything it will throw out some small metalics into the oil with all the other parts that are doing the same, it's not that bad of a thing for a harley as it will kinda cushion all the looseness and help to take up extra slop in the running components kinda like adding sawdust, the real small particulates actually might be beneficial when they combine with the overheated oil from cyl. #2 and form a kinda "burnt sludge stop leak" that then accumulates at the bottom of the cases and helps to seal off the poor machined surfaces...

but don't underestimate the smoothness that will be achieved in the transmission case with the larger chunks esp. when the pre-ignition starts to happen in cyl. #2 and then it's bigger brother detonation ---- you will be glad you had a little "cushion" between the gears sloppy teeth because they will be getting spike loaded way beyond their feeble design ratings...

changing my tune and trying to be as optimistic as I can... just put it in and "enjoy the ride"...

[JoeLee]

It's pretty course and nasty looking - but that's just keeping up with harley standards so I seriously don't see a problem,,,

they routinely build stuff like this - and believe it or not it will "break in" fast as it knocks down the hills and the existing valleys will still be there for "oil retention"

it will work - and precision does not matter - again - it's a harley and it will not know any difference. their crap anyways - and why would you want to (excuse the expression) "put lipstick on a hog"

That nasty looking surface appearance looks like deliberate cross hatch from honing. I'm sure the magnification of the picture is making it look worse than it actually is.
I would go by how much slop is in the bearing as opposed to what is looks like.

The bearing doesn't look like it's too difficult to make and it could be bored and sleeved.

JL..................

[old mart]

I would do some research into needle roller races and repair sleeves. It looks like that old race could be bored out to take a thinwall caged needleroller bearing, and also the possibility of the shaft being ground down for a matching sleeve. These sleeves are in the region of only 0.040" or less wall thickness, so repair might be feasible.

[A.K. Boomer]

Thin wall sleeve repairs are best left for plain bearing applications --- you want to avoid them like the plague with roller bearings as it's too high of unit pressures and the sleeve will deform like dough under grandma's rolling pin... thin wall sleeves have to be somewhat pliable (soft) and what will happen is they will actually grow in width and extrude from the sides and then lose press fit tolerance and disintegrate in short order...