# New Idea 5209 bearing problems



## rglove (Mar 4, 2009)

I have a 5209 I bought new . I had eight trouble free years until last fall when I had my first disk bearing failure. Over the winter I decided to go over it, replacing both bearings in each disk, a few bevel gears, just a good going over.This year I've burned a total of six sets of bearings, some only lasting 45 minutes!!!!!! The caps were torqued to specs. The parts were bought from my Agco dealer. Any help would be appreciated.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Check with your dealer and maybe a few others in the area and see if maybe they got a bad batch of bearings. I'm guessing with the age of your machine, the originals were most likely Made in the USA while the replacements are some chinese garbage. Ask the service manager as well at your dealer. Does your caps use any kind of shims or spacers? Maybe they have a service bulletin out for updated bearings or something.


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## rglove (Mar 4, 2009)

They were definitely chinese! I am temped to start over this winter with timkem or some other US bearing.


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## roninB4 (Oct 2, 2009)

Timken is no longer an American made bearing. There may be some still made here but they are partners with China and have plants in Pakistan as well. Sad isn't it? Best bet is to examine each bearing for mfg. country of origin when you go pick it up at the shop.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I think Fafnir and BCA are still American made.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if the bearings were junk right outa the box.

Replaced all the bearings on a lawn mower deck for a neighbor, he supplied the bearings, chinese of course, first one went out three weeks later.

Have to watch when you buy roller chain as well. Browning has their economy chain, imported, while their heavy duty/sever duty stuff is still made here.


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## fxrupr (Jun 30, 2009)

One thing that I noticed is that just like wheel bearings the spindle bearings are up out of the oil for the most part and should be prelubricated with a good quality grease during installation. otherwise they may run dry. You wonder why the designers didn't figure some way to force oil up into the caps while they are running. Oh I know! So we can replace them more often.
One other thing, even though stuff is made overseas, if it says Timken or Fafnir or New Departure then it should be manufactured to the proper specs and the QC should be done right. Obviously if they are some wannabe Chinese fly by night outfit then maybe the material is not up to snuff. 
I also learned from my bearing guy that the oil seals they use are a non standard high temp silicone rubber rather than the normal stuff. He could get me the standard seals but would have to have ordered 40 of the special ones at a time to get the high temp ones. So they know that the seals are being subjected to high heat but they don't have oil pumped up there. Anybody see a problem here.

My 2 cents worth.

Next topic.
I got my NH 617 disc mower all rebuilt and when I went to put the turtles back on with the new knives, several knives were dragging on the spacers. Not good. I took the offending turtles back off which were newish and noticed that the welded in slots where you bolt on the knives weren't parallel to the mower, but looked like the worst one drooped down about 5 degrees. These were almost new and showed no apparent wear. I'm thinking manufacturing defect, so I figured I'd fix it in the press. 
I put the turtle in the press hump up, and gave it about 10 tons. The slots straightened out but when I let off the pressure they went right back the way they were. 
In addition a crack had developed at one corner. Crap! My next experiment is to take a really worn out one and heat it up red hot and try and straighten it. They are obviously tempered but if you don't keep it hot too long and let it cool slow it shouldn't mess it up to bad. Fingers crossed.
Anybody else notice this problem?
Any help would be appreciated.
John in Dallas


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## Barry Bowen (Nov 16, 2009)

I have had the same problem with some bearings from Agco, and will try a different bearing supplier next time to get better quality bearings if New Idea did not use some strange size that no one else makes. Have found this problem on some Gleaner combines. The last batch I got from Agco were Janpanese.

Did you have the 4 spacer shims in between the bearings? This spaces out the bearings for the snap ring in the middle. Do you take you machine apart yearly to install new grease in the pods? Can you turn your machine freely by hand on the cutter bar? If not something is definitely wrong.


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