bearing for spider

[Nathan Clark]

Dale, In my opinion the 6305 bearing is NOT the right bearing for your steering spider. All the spiders I have pulled apart have either had a solid steel self aligning plain bearing or a self aligning ball bearing. The point of using a self aligning bearing instead of an ordinary ball bearing like 6305 is that a self aligning bearing will allow a certain level of misalignment between the steering box output shaft and the bottom bearing retainer, where an ordinary bearing will allow little to no misalignment. In a lot of cases the fittings welded in each end of the steering column tubing are not welded perfectly straight anyway so the self aligning bearings allow the steering shafts to turn smoothly in the bottom bearing retainer and will eliminate possible tight spots while turning.

The self aligning bearings that I have pulled out, all have the same details as follows below. A quick check of Google shows that there are modern equivalent for this bearing.

New Departure 2605 Made In USA

Regards, Nathan

[Lynn Eades]

Nathan, your 2605 self aligning bearing is ideal, and yes they were obviously used, but possibly due to shortages of supply or whatever, ordinary 6000 series annular grooved bearings were also used as original. You might find that carriers in your area were fitted with them, but due to supply maybe another manufacturer may never have had them.
Some one recently mentioned that a ball bearing company was set up in Australia during the war to cover a need. That factory only made ball bearings.
It may have been decided after trial, that there were no problems caused by the use of a std ball bearing. Now days you will pay probably 5 times as much for a self aligning bearing.
I Have pulled a couple of spider assys. apart that were likely not meddled with since WWII, and the contained ordinary B.bearings. I have found both kinds in riveted carriers as well, where they are imperial sized.
I have never seen the solid one until Dale's post.