Ball Thrust Bearing Installation Guide

There are 3 parts composed of the ball thrust bearing, they are upper washer, lower washer and bearing cage with steel balls. The upper washer is a little bit smaller than the lower one in diameter, and the cage is the same size with the lower one.

Installation Steps:
Usually, the installation steps are: install the lower washer, and then the cage and bearing steel balls, at the last one is upper washer. The upper washer can fix the axis and rotate with it.

The fitting of thrust bearings with axis in general is for transition, and fitting of the ring with the bearing bore is clearance fit. Therefore, this kind of bearings is easier to install. Bi-directional thrust bearings shaft spring should be fixed on the axis to prevent relative rotation to the axis.

Installation Tactics:
In generally, it is the circumstance that the axis rotates. So the fitting of inner ring and axis is interference fit, and the fitting of outer ring and bearing housing is clearance fit.

Common Errors:
The ball thrust bearing mainly bears the axial load in the operation. There are still errors occur in actual repair even though the installation is relatively simple. The most common error is the incorrect installation location of the locking ring and the loose ring, and such leads to the useless of the bearing and causes the faster weary of the wear out of the bearing journal. 

Cautions:
1. Distinguish between the bearing locking ring and loose ring (Judging in accordance of the bearing inner diameter, their diameters differ 0.1 to 0.5mm).
2. Distinguish of the stationary part of the mechanical parts (that is the no movement part).
3. In no circumstance, the bearing loose ring should be always close to the face of the stationary part.

Please contact FITRUN if any question regarding the ball thrust bearing installation. Our engineers will discuss with you for detailed solutions.