OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum OutdoorKing Showcase Qualcast (Australia) Blue Ribbon II

Hi

A little progress with my Blue Ribbon II restoration.

Together for the first time after a few attempts to repack the loose ball bearings.

As I lost one when dismantling, the local bike shop had a bargain on some new loose 3/16" balls, so I replaced them all with the aid of some grease to hold them in place.

Still needs a final coat of my best matched "blue" and then onto the "red" handle, hub caps and a new roller.

Mark

The balls need to be exactly the same diameter as the original ones, or you will just ruin the tracks they run in.

Hi

Thanks for the comment.

Not sure what you mean by the tracks.

The bearings are a cup and cone design and don't have any grooved races.

I was conscious to replace all balls rather than just some in case there was a small size difference.

I did use my digital callipers to check the size of the originals, there was some variation between the two, but most were about 0.185 inches, hence the choice of 3/16 inch as the closest. The new ones are 0.1865 inches.

Not sure if these bearings will see much use after I finish as the mower will probably end up back under the house gathering dust again.

I still haven't found an affordable source for the two taper pins from the shaft as yet. I don't want to buy a box full and there seems to be a gap in the metric size range that corresponds with the old ones.

Mark

Mark, I'm only accustomed to cup and cone bearings using rollers, not balls - the taper roller bearings used as car front wheel bearings are an example. However if it has been made to use balls in (grooveless) cup and cone, and you have used a matched set of balls, I agree it should work as well as it did in the first place. I suppose a push mower probably isn't expected to last forever anyway. Until you posted that, I hadn't realised that a standard of engineering lower than that used on the common bicycle even existed outside of kids' plastic toys.

hi grumpy,
there is a form of "cup & cone" ball bearing which was commonly used in vw front wheel bearings , & also some thing comes to mind in an old chevvy application, i can tell by your knowledge that you are familiar with older vehicles, when the holden was first produced it had an "in betweener"the barrel roller , also a front wheel bearing , love your replies .
john.

John, it sounds to me as if those bearings must have had cages for the balls?

Hi

I have yet to found any documentation relating to the Qualcast (Australia) Blue Ribbon II, let alone a parts diagram.

I can't recall if the mower had a previous ball bearing change, but there were no cages and too many balls (for a cage) when dismantled.

Maybe others or a Model H restorer could comment.

As mentioned, I did have problems replacing the balls and got the idea of using the grease to hold the loose balls from a bicycle service site. It seems even the lastest Shimano hubs use a loose ball bearing cup and cone design for performance reasons (not that it would apply to my push mower).

A quick browse of the online newspapers suggests a date of the early 1950's for the Blue Ribbon with possibly 1954 for the Mark II, but I don't know if the bearing design is the same as the Model H which dates back to at least the early 1930's

Mark

I'm probably misunderstanding your reference to "cup and cone". Maybe the outer race is angular contact rather than straight? If you just have internal and external cones and put loose balls between, the balls would move to the outside and rub against the housing.

The trick with the grease is traditional for installing loose balls. It will work even when gravity is working against you.

Bicycles traditionally have fairly simple components and use loose balls more or less exclusively. However they normally use the angular contact concept where they can't use a race-type groove in one side of the bearing.

Hi Mark posted photo of model h ball bearing rgds Peter

Peter, I can't find a photo link, or a photo, in your post.