Clutch Bearings - When To Replace?

[lxskllr]

I'm getting close to replacing the spur on my CS400. It's past due, but I want to use up the natty chain I have on it, and start everything brand new. I bought a set of bearings with the spur. My intention was changing them when I changed the spur, but I'm wondering if that's necessary. Should I proactively change the bearings, or wait til they fail, and change then?

 

[Ed L]

Never had one fail, replacment never crossed my mind.

Ed

 

[lxskllr]

That's a perfect answer. Thanks! I'll just pack the bearings away, and I'll have them if there's ever a problem. I think they were cheap :^D I've had this stuff so long, I forget what I paid. I've been meaning to change the spur, but kept running into old chains. Since I didn't want old chains on a new spur, I just kept kicking the project down the road.

 

[lumberjack]

I don’t run a saw as much as many here, but I’ve never replaced a bearing, 21 years of doing trees come April.

 

[Kaveman]

So long as it passes inspection like any other bearing, I'd leave it.

Always nice to have bits and bobs laying about.

Once upon a time, I was able to replace a wrist pin bushing with the bearing for a Stihl clutch. Can't remember what saw it belonged to, but it fit perfectly in the little Chinese two stroke bicycle engine. It certianly wasn't the failure point when that chineseium engine gave up.

 

[Nutball]

The bearings do fail sometimes, and depending on the condition of the old one, I might swap it, but keep it oiled in a zip lock as a spare. The spurs can technically be run until the chain starts to slip, by then it has about cut a groove through the teeth. Ideally you should rotate chains regularly to even wear across all chains and the sprockets rather than alternating new and old chains.

 

[pigwot]

Caveat: 99.8% of my time has been spent running Huskys for 39 years. It seems in my experience the bearing seals tend to fail first rather than the bearing itself, after a ‘lot’ of hours on a saw… I found when they started to run funky and were hard to tune it was time to tear it down and rebuild with new bearings. That being said, it was more prevalent in some of the older series Husky saws 100*,200*. The 300 series low ends have been robust.

 

[SeanKroll]

He's talking clutch drum needle bearing, I think.

 

[Altissimus]

Personally never had one fail , oddly though my buddy bought a brand new 562 ..., Clutch bearing failure at Six Hours use.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

What can happen time to time is that some crap sneaks its way inside the needle bearing and jams it, at least partially. The chain tends to run even at low idle but is easily stopped by touching the bark. Still quite dangerous with the ropes. The brake stops it of course but that means that the bearing is slipping as long as it's locked. Not good for its lifetime.

 

[Trains]

if the clutch drum has less play, wobble side to side on the drum with the new bearing compared to the original one, then replace it.
if the same, and it looks ok, and the old clutch drum inner bearing surface looks ok, then keep it.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

If I change the clutch drum, I change the bearing.
When I changebthe drive rim, I check the bearing for play. Not rocket surgery

 

[Magnus]

I'm getting close to replacing the spur on my CS400. It's past due, but I want to use up the natty chain I have on it, and start everything brand new. I bought a set of bearings with the spur. My intention was changing them when I changed the spur, but I'm wondering if that's necessary. Should I proactively change the bearings, or wait til they fail, and change then?

If you have new bearing, put it in, save the old as spare.

A tip, If you change sprocket. Put a new bar on and rotate several chains on same sprocket/bar. 5 chains or more.
You get less wear and more runtime of the stuff.

 

[pigwot]

He's talking clutch drum needle bearing, I think.

And exactly why I shouldn’t be responding when I’ve been up since 4:30am!

My bad- I, like most of you have needle bearings, clutch counterweight springs, carb kits, plugs, fuel filters, air filters, starter recoil springs, and various bits and pieces for most of my saws, along with items for saws long gone…

The view out back this morning just because…

 

[lxskllr]

Same view here! Really... I'm upstairs. Surprise! I was hoping for more snow, but it's just as well. It's heavy. More snow would probably bring tree destruction.

 

[flushcut]

You have a new one, it will be apart, so why not replace it even tho it may not be bad.